


Regression

by Cait_Sidhe



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Amnesia, Bisexual Male Character, Break Up, Destiny Islands (Kingdom Hearts), Disney Castle (Kingdom Hearts), Disney Town (Kingdom Hearts), Dissociation, Implied/Referenced Cheating, M/M, Minor Kairi/Selphie, Muteness, Mysterious Tower (Kingdom Hearts), POV Riku (Kingdom Hearts), POV Third Person Limited, Post-Kingdom Hearts II, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, Riku Loves Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Separation Anxiety, Sora Loves Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:34:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28762662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cait_Sidhe/pseuds/Cait_Sidhe
Summary: Sora returns home from his journey to find his mother has been brutally murdered. The shock of such causes him to regress to his childhood persona as well as to stop talking, and it falls to Riku to help Sora through this as Sora refuses to leave his side.Because Sora's mother was in a cross-world witness-protection program, Sora needs to leave the Destiny Islands—so Riku and Kairi go with him to live at Disney Castle, where they find a surprising amount of drama.
Relationships: Daisy Duck/Donald Duck, José Carioca/Donald Duck, Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 23
Kudos: 54





	1. A Traumatic Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> I was looking through my multitude of unfinished things to find that this one was actually close to done! So, I'm hoping posting it now will give me the push I need to finish the final few scenes. 
> 
> Chapter length will vary greatly, but the total word count will be between 30-40k. I'll start with posting two chapters tonight, then will be posting once or twice a week as I edit/finalize them.
> 
> Relationship focus is Sora/Riku and the cheating/break-up tags are not related to them.
> 
> A note about the age-regression tag: in this story the age regression is an involuntary mental response to trauma, not related to ageplay or otherwise voluntary entry into such a state. If you've come here expecting something of a sexual nature, this fic isn't for you (no judgement if that's what you're into; just note this fic doesn't include such).
> 
> Please let me know if I've gotten anything drastically wrong; I did extensive research, but I'm not a psychiatrist nor do I have most the disorders mentioned in this so if you are/do and notice something off please let me know!
> 
> Rated T to be safe. Might add more tags as chapters are added. There are other characters that pop in, such as Max and Pluto, but they're minor enough roles that I won't bother tagging them.

Sora waved goodbye to Riku once their paths diverged, and then took a deep breath as he turned the corner towards his childhood home. He’d been gone nearly two years. Would his mother recognize him? What would she say? Sora didn’t know what to say. He had only planned as far as a simple “I’m back”; he’d wing it from there. His mom was a sweet, forgiving person; he knew she wouldn’t be angry. The tears would be happy. Then Sora would tell her all about his journey—Mickey said they could tell their parents, although for everyone else a story would need to be woven. Sora even had a few postcards he’d picked up along the way as proof of his adventure, but he knew his mom would believe him even without them. She’d probably love that her son had been part of a fairy-tale journey, although she wouldn’t like how much danger he’d been in. She’d understand though. She’d always loved telling him tales of epic hero’s travels.

Sora’s happy smile turned into a confused frown as he arrived at the little suburban house he and his mom shared. He’d automatically checked the overly-large yellow mailbox, as he did whenever he arrived home, to find it was completely full. Strange. An unsettling feeling swirled in his gut, only increasing as he turned to look at the door, where about a dozen newspapers had been haphazardly thrown, some on the path but others into grass that hadn’t been mowed in quite some time. His mom only had a subscription to the Sunday paper, and she’d made a habit of waiting on the porch drinking tea while waiting for it to arrive, so she could greet the paperboy with a big smile and freshly-baked scones or pastries. The paperboys changed often, as it was basically used as an introductory job for kids around the islands, so it wasn't surprising no one noticed the change—if they had, surely it would have been reported and investigated, as Sora could think of no reason his mother would suddenly stop except for… but no, surely not… 

Sora shook slightly with a feeling he couldn’t place as he approached the doorstep, the mail under his arm. He didn’t try to pick up the newspapers, as there were so many. 

The door was unlocked. As the door opened, Sora was hit with a horrible smell; he nearly vomited right there from it. He covered his mouth and nose with his hand and elbowed his way in.

“Mom?” he called, trying not to gag from the smell, the dread now a raging storm of fear and apprehension inside him. He entered the house a bit more and again called “Mom?”

Sora turned into the kitchen and froze. The mail dropped to the floor, but Sora didn’t notice. He doubled over, spewing his entire whatever-his-previous-meal-was onto the floor at the sight. Sora’s head spun; he was going to pass out if he stayed in here. His heart racing, barely processing what he was doing, Sora turned and sprinted out of the house.

Sora tripped on the way out, skinning his knee on the concrete walkway; thankfully he had gloves to protect his hands, though he landed on them hard, causing a shock to shoot through his wrists. But the pain hardly registered. Sora stayed down for a minute, breathing heavily, then sprung back up and took off running again.

Sora didn’t even think about where he was going; he was completely on autopilot. His heart knew where he wanted to go, and he knew the way from years of travel between the two houses.

Sora practically crashed into the blue-painted house, slightly larger than his own but not by munch. Thankfully the main door was already open, and the screen door had no lock. Once inside, Sora looked around frantically, spotting Riku, who had instinctually stood up and drawn his keyblade when the door crashed in. He began to say something, then noticing who it was, dismissed the keyblade and cut himself off, confused. Sora crashed into his best friend with a sob and held him tightly.

“Sora, what’s going on?” Riku asked worriedly, looking at his friend, then towards his parents, who were equally as baffled. Riku looked back down at the boy whose face was nuzzled in his chest. He tried to gently pry Sora away, to no avail. “Sora, what’s wrong? Talk to me.”

Sora muttered something indecipherable, muffled in Riku’s chest.

Riku’s parents were standing now too. Riku’s mom put a comforting hand on Sora’s shoulder. “Sora, honey, what happened?” Sora replied with a shake of his head. “Does it have to do with your mom?” she ventured, to which Sora replied with a strangled noise.

“I’ll go check things out,” Riku’s dad said in a no-nonsense manner, and abruptly left. 

Sora still didn’t let go of Riku, so the silverette finagled them onto the couch, Sora sitting in his lap and clutching Riku for dear life. For Sora to be in such a state, things must be bad. What had he come home to? A sense of dread hung over the room; both Riku and his mom had come to the same conclusion his dad had, highlighted by the fact that Sora still smelled of vomit due to getting some on himself.

“Sora, let’s get you cleaned up, okay?” Riku’s mom, noticing this, suggested once Sora’s sobbing had calmed down. She shook his shoulder slightly, but Sora didn’t unlatch from Riku.

“Sora?” Riku asked quietly, shaking him slightly, but there was no response. “I don’t think he’s asleep…” he turned to his mom with a questioning and concerned expression. He’d never seen Sora like this before, not since a very young child, and wasn’t sure what to do.

“I think he’s in a state of shock,” Riku’s mom explained, familiar with such situations due to her job as an emergency room nurse. “Whatever happened must have been extremely traumatic.”

Riku looked down at Sora in disbelief, not yet fully processing things. “But… we went through a lot of traumatic things, and he never acted like this…”

“Every situation is different,” his mom explained. She was about to say more, but the phone rang, so she went into the next room to answer it.

Riku watched as his mom, still visible through the doorway, gasped and put a hand over her mouth as she listened to whomever was on the other end. Most likely Riku’s dad. Whatever happened, it must have been bad—his mom was usually very calm and collected even when being told bad news. She had to be to work her job. Riku held Sora close, but didn’t really know what else to do. He felt like a little kid, scared and confused at what was going on. He’d been on his own nearly two years, thought he could handle any situation… Well, quite frankly, he was still processing the whole final battle and dark beach things. Had they really only returned just over an hour ago? For something like… whatever was happening... to happen so soon after all that was disorienting.

Riku tried coaxing Sora to stand, which he managed to by the time his mother finished the call and returned to the living room.

“Oh, good, you’re standing,” she said to Sora. “Can you get to the bathroom, dear? We need to get you cleaned up and changed. Oh, and goodness, you’re bleeding too! We’ll fix that too, okay?” 

Riku frowned at that, and checked his pockets for a potion, but he’d run out. Damn. Riku suddenly wished he’d learned more about healing magic instead of focusing on only dark spells. Sora could heal himself usually, but he seemed to be making no effort to, if he’d even registered having a wound.

Sora shook slightly where he stood, staring ahead and not moving. Riku sighed, then scooped Sora up in a bridal carry; the brunette was lighter than he’d expected, even with all the muscle from their adventure. Sora wrapped his arms instinctually around Riku’s neck and leaned his head into his chest, but didn’t otherwise react. As Riku followed his mom to the bathroom, he asked what had happened, only for his mom to dodge the question by saying they’d talk about that later.

After Sora had changed into some of Riku’s old clothes—simple blue shorts and a yellow v-neck—and his knee donned a large band-aid, Riku’s mom heated up some leftover lasagna for the two as she’d realized the boys hadn’t eaten in who-knew-how-long. Riku ate voraciously, from both hunger and the excitement at having actual homemade food as opposed to the nutrition bars and grab-and-go meals that had composed most of his diet over the past year, but Sora had to be coaxed into eating, barely managing to finish a third of it. It was the exact opposite of how meals would go pre-leaving.

There was some commotion at the door, and Riku held back the urge to draw his keyblade without knowing who it was—he was still jumpy from all the fighting. A few moments later, Riku’s dad entered the kitchen after dropping some people off in the living room.

“The police are here now,” his dad said. Riku blinked at him in confusion. Police? Whatever happened was so bad police had to get involved? His dad continued, “Sora, are you up for talking to them?”

Sora looked at Riku’s dad with wide eyes, not seeming to understand.

“He hasn’t said a word since he got here,” Riku’s mom explained.

“Is Sora in trouble?” Riku asked, worried and starting to wonder if it’d been a good idea to return after all.

Riku’s dad shook his head. “Not at all,” he assured his son. “He just… discovered something. It’s pretty obvious he ran as soon as he saw it, but they want a formal statement anyway.”

Riku bit his tongue to hold back the sudden rush of annoyed anger at the fact that the adults were clearly trying to hide something—specifically, that Sora’s mom was probably dead—and treating him like a kid who couldn’t understand. He reminded himself that to them, he was. It’d been two years; they were probably still thinking of him as the fifteen-year-old he had been when they last saw him, too young to handle adult things (although arguably fifteen was definitely not too young, but his parents had always loved coddling). They also weren’t aware of everything Riku had been through, didn’t know that Riku could not only handle death, but had also killed people himself. Of course mentioning that part now, or ever, probably was not a good idea.

Sora finally stood up of his own volition. He walked over to Riku and tugged on his hand so that Riku stood too.

“Sora?” Riku asked, looking at their hands in confusion, vaguely noting his mom trying to hide a giggle at the display.

Sora led Riku into the living room and to an armchair. Riku sat down, and Sora plopped himself in his lap, grabbing Riku’s hands to wrap his arms around Sora’s waist, just like they’d done when they were children. Riku’s parents followed, pulling in some chairs from the kitchen so they could sit, as they’d insisted the police officers take the couch.

The officers got right down to business; the blonde-haired woman, hair pulled into a bun, opened a notepad and took out a pen. Her partner, a surprisingly tall and lanky man with short brown hair, leaned forwards slightly so that his elbows rested on his knees. 

He spoke first, looking at Sora. “You’re the one who found her, correct? Sora, was it?” He spoke in a gentler voice than Riku would have expected.

Sora nodded in response, his eyes hazy.

“Now, we’ve already seen the crime scene”—Riku’s eyes widened slightly. Crime scene?—“and can surmise what happened when you found your mother earlier today. Your friend’s dad also told us some things. However, we need to confirm things with you. Can you answer some questions?”

Sora stared at the officer blankly.

“How about just yes and no?” the female officer asked gently, realizing Sora might not be up to using his voice. “You can nod and shake your head.”

Sora nodded his head in response.

The officers seemed to have a pretty good idea of what had happened when Sora had arrived home and found his mom, who had apparently been brutally murdered some months ago. They had crime scene photos, but thankfully didn’t make Sora look at them; Riku avoided doing so too. He definitely understood why Sora had vomited—he wanted to just from the description of the scene, which wasn't even detailed. Of everything they’d faced over the past couple years, this definitely was the most brutal: unlike nobodies, heartless, and whatever Maleficent was, humans did not simply dissolve and magically vanish upon death.

“Well, that’s it for the questions regarding today’s events,” the female officer said as she finalized some of her notes. “However, we do have some questions about the murder itself,” she continued. Riku tensed, and felt Sora stiffen in his arms; did they think…?

The male officer noticed their reactions. “Don’t worry, neither of you are suspects; we know you were away for a while.” Huh. Riku’s dad must have come up with a story to tell the officers; Riku hadn’t concocted one yet. “We just need to know if there’s anyone you know of that might have held a grudge against your mother or otherwise might want to do something like this."

Sora vigorously shook his head ‘no’.

Riku clarified for him. “She was one of the nicest people you could ever meet, always welcoming and friendly. I don’t think I once saw her genuinely angry—not even the time we accidentally broke her favorite vase. I don’t know why anyone would ever want to hurt her.” She was like Sora in that way… oh. “Unless they were maybe jealous of that or something?” Riku suggested. He had hurt Sora over jealousy. But to go that far? Riku doubted it was just jealousy at play here.

The officer nodded. “That’s not unheard of. Did you ever notice anyone who might be envious of her?”

Sora shook his head and shrugged, and Riku explained further. “We haven’t been around for a while, so wouldn’t know… oh! Actually, there was one old lady who hated the vegetable garden. She said it attracted too many bees. What was her name… Mrs. Durs?” Sora nodded in agreement.

Riku’s dad chucked slightly. “I don’t think it was her, unless she somehow breached the veil—she died more than a year ago. Plus, she was in her 90s and arthritic.”

“Yeah, guess that rules her out,” Riku concluded. “So, no, we don’t know anyone. But again, we haven’t been around for a while, so anything more recent we wouldn’t know about.”

“Well, that’s about it, then,” the female officer said as she dotted her i’s before closing the notepad. “We’ll contact you if we have further questions, okay?” she stood up, followed by the male officer and Riku’s dad, who led them out.

When his dad returned, Riku realized something. “They never asked about relatives,” he commented. “For Sora to stay with,” he clarified. Didn’t police usually ask about relatives when children are involved? But Sora had none that they knew of—his mother had no living family, and never revealed who Sora’s father was, so it had only ever been her and him… oh no. They weren’t going to take Sora away, were they? Make him a foster kid?

“Relax, Riku,” his father said calmly, noticing his son’s budding unease. “I already discussed that with the officers earlier. Sora can stay with us.”

Riku let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “Okay, good,” he sighed, squeezing Sora slightly, who leaned into Riku happily and grabbed his hands, which were still around Sora’s waist.

“Besides, I don’t think he’d give us any other option regardless,” Riku’s mom teased, causing him to blush. Sora was definitely being very clingy today. Riku wasn’t sure if it was the brunette’s way of dealing with this specific trauma or born from searching for Riku for months. Probably a combination. Riku would need to adapt; it’d been years since he’d experienced such a high amount of non-violent physical contact.

Riku then realized something. “Hey, dad, did you tell the officers something about where we went? They already knew we hadn’t been around.”

“Oh, right,” his dad said. “I told them you were studying abroad the past couple semesters, somewhere without regular phone service; I did something like that when I was a kid, in the jungle.” Riku smiled. His dad had told him many stories about that when he was a kid; it was one of the things that had gotten Riku so interested in travelling. And, hey, technically he had been abroad! It was a good cover story.

“Our friends will be surprised we left so suddenly, but yeah, that seems like the best explanation since we’re not supposed to tell anyone but you about the other worlds.” Riku concluded. Not even friends—if they even had friends around here anymore. Riku internally shook his head; this wasn’t the time for self-deprecation. He had to be strong for Sora.

“Well, it’s getting late,” Riku’s dad noted. “I’ll go make dinner. Sora, want to help?”

Sora stared at Riku’s dad, seemingly having trouble processing the words. Riku’s dad gave him a moment, and then Sora nodded, smiling slightly. Riku smiled fondly too. Sora had always enjoyed cooking, especially with Riku’s dad, who had been a gourmet chef before a stay-at-home dad, after which he’d done a complete career switch to financing. Sora slowly stood and followed him, dragging Riku to the kitchen too as he’d yet to let go of Riku’s hand.

Sora did eventually let go of Riku once he realized he needed two hands to chop vegetables and crack eggs, but whenever Riku tried to leave the room Sora would frantically grab him again. So, Riku’s dad assigned him some food prep tasks to do as well. Sora looked happier as he did this, briefly forgetting the traumatic incident as he focused on the food, although he still didn’t speak. Riku wanted to talk to his mom about that, as she had experience with trauma patients—would Sora wake up in the morning just as chatty as he used to be? Or did this type of thing usually last longer? And if so, how long? Days? Weeks? Forever?

Riku’s thoughts then drifted to Kairi. He should call her tonight, before she learned via the papers—things like this rarely happened in towns on the archipelago's smaller islands, so it would be big news. The larger one, which had the city (though those on the mainland probably—no, definitely—wouldn’t call it such), occasionally got murders, but he couldn’t recall the last time their little island, consisting of a single close-knit town, had had such a violent crime committed.

But Kairi would be catching up with her adoptive parents. She’d only been gone for a few weeks, but it’d been via a double kidnapping—first by Axel to protect her from Saïx, who found them anyway and captured her. That had undoubtedly been traumatic too. Thankfully Kairi had very understanding parents too, although they could be rather stern. They also already knew about the other worlds—Kairi had fallen from one, after all—so explanations would be easier for her. As it stood, Riku had only told his parents a little bit of what happened before Sora ran in—after the tears and hugs, he’d given a brief summary followed by showing them the keyblade and some magic, which was also why his dad had known to give the cops a different explanation for their absences.

“Hey, Riku,” his dad suddenly said, as though catching his thoughts. “Have you given thought to what you’ll do next? The exchange program would count as a school year, so you’d have to do catch up work beforehand. But, you don’t have to continue school; you’re old enough to drop out. Both of you are.”

“Oh. Um. I honestly haven’t given thought to that,” Riku admitted. He was also surprised his father would even suggest dropping out of school, although come to think of it, hadn’t his dad done so to become a chef? But… “They might want us to train with the keyblade and do related things,” he realized. “There’s not many people who can use them, and they’re the only thing that can permanently take down heartless—those are the shadow creatures I mentioned.”

“I hope you don’t leave too soon,” Riku’s mom said sadly as she entered the kitchen. “We just got you back.”

“And you’re to visit us this time if you do,” Riku’s dad said with finality. “Possessed or not.”

Riku chuckled at that. “I will, don’t worry,” he promised. “And if they do want us to return, I’m sure it won’t be right away; everyone needs time to process things. Besides, King Mickey isn’t the type to force people into things without good reason—if we say we need a break, he’ll give it to us.”

Riku’s mom smiled. “Good. Now, something smells really good; let’s get eating!”

During dinner, Sora sat right next to Riku, close enough they were almost touching. The discussion during which was more about Riku’s parents’ lives while they were gone instead of their journey so Sora wouldn’t feel uncomfortable—as he still wasn’t speaking, they weren’t sure what adventure-related topics would be sensitive or not. Based on Sora’s usual unfiltered attitude, he’d be fine with it, but as he’d probably been looking forward to telling his mom all about it, it could be triggering. Sora’s mom would have loved learning all about Sora’s adventure, fraught with danger or not.

Afterwards, everyone started to head to the living room again, until Sora let out a huge yawn, emphasizing how tiring the whole day had been. Plus they hadn’t slept in over 24 hours, with the time differences between worlds causing them to skip a whole night. Riku caught the yawn. Still, he felt he should speak to his parents more in-depth about what had happened. 

Riku’s mom caught this train of thought. “You two should get some sleep. We can all talk more tomorrow. Your room is already set up—we always believed you’d return.” 

“Plus, you should probably call Kairi,” Riku’s dad pointed out, and Riku nodded.

Riku’s mom suddenly frowned. “Sora, you can borrow some of Riku’s old pajamas, but Riku, I don’t think we have anything that fits you,” she told them. Riku gave a start at that; he hadn’t noticed at first, but he was now noticeably taller than his dad. Riku’s mom was still quite a bit taller than him though; Riku obviously inherited his height from her.

“Oh, I can sleep in my clothes,” Riku said. “They’re comfy enough.”

“Really? They don’t look it,” his mom said, eyeing the complex clothes.

Riku shrugged. “They have magic infused in them. Mostly for protection in battle, but there’s also charms to keep them comfortable. I’ve had to sleep in them a lot. They stay magically clean, too.”

“Hmm. Well, then, that’ll have to do—but we’re buying you regular clothes and pajamas tomorrow! People will think it odd if you’re in the same thing every day.”

“Okay,” Riku agreed, knowing that there was no point arguing with his mother on that matter.

Riku said his goodnights to his parents. Sora didn’t speak, but he gave them each a hug to convey the same thing before following Riku up the stairs to his room.

Riku dug some pajamas out of the dresser—things really were just as he’d left them, although his dad must have tidied up and cleaned the room—and tossed them to Sora. Sora immediately changed into the blue pajama shorts and yellow top, right in the middle of the room. Riku blushed and turned away; they weren’t kids anymore! Then again, Sora was acting like one… could trauma do that? Riku needed to ask his mom, but he didn’t want to if Sora would follow him. It was puzzling, as Sora clearly understood things like how to chop vegetables and get dressed, as well as the officers' questions, but his entire demeanor otherwise seemed more like the Sora from a decade ago.

“I’ll go get an air mattress,” Riku said, realizing that they were older now so sharing a bed would be awkward, especially since they’d both grown significantly and the bed was only a twin.

Sora grabbed Riku’s arm before he could leave and shook his head. He returned to the bed and sat down, clearly conveying that he wanted to share and wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Riku chuckled slightly. “Okay, okay, we can share.” He walked over to sit on the bed lengthwise, leaning against the headboard, reaching to the phone on the nightstand. Because Kairi and Sora would frequently call him with no thought to time, his parents had long ago installed a private phone line in Riku’s bedroom so as not to be woken at random hours. “Do you mind if I call Kairi?” Riku asked Sora, who looked at the floor in response. “We really should tell her about what happened,” he explained. “Before she finds out in other ways.” Namely, the newspaper. Riku really hoped the press wouldn’t try talking to Sora about it.

Sora eventually nodded, and then hopped onto the bed and scooched over to Riku so he could curl up against Riku’s side. Riku dialed the number and pressed the button for the speakerphone.

After a few rings, Kairi answered—she too had a private line in her room. “Hello?”

“Hey, Kairi, it’s Riku,” he informed her.

“Riku! It’s pretty late, you know.”

Riku laughed. “That’s never stopped you from calling.”

“Touché. So, what’s up? How’d your parents react? Mine were just relieved I’m back, didn’t even ask me to explain, though I did anyway.”

Riku nodded, then realized she couldn’t see that. “Right. Mine were pretty much the same.”

“Yeah I figured. They’re pretty good at going with the flow... Hey, have you heard from Sora? I tried calling earlier, but there was no answer. I expect he’s probably still telling all his stories to—”

“Actually, Sora’s right here,” Riku interrupted, anticipating what she was about to say and feeling Sora freeze. “You’re on speakerphone; sorry I forgot to say right away.”

“Oh!” Kairi said happily. “Sora! Hi!” Sora didn’t respond. “...Sora?”

“He says hi,” Riku said.

Kairi laughed. “Let me guess, he has a mouthful of chips or something?”

Riku paused, trying to figure out how to word things as Sora curled into him further. He should have worked such out before calling.

“Riku? What’s wrong?” Kairi asked, sensing the nervous silence.

“Sora’s… not talking right now,” Riku explained.

“Not talking? What do you mean, not talking?” Kairi’s heavy confusion was obvious from her voice. It was understandable; Sora usually loved to talk, frequently rambling on about everything and anything. “He was talking plenty when we returned.”

“My mom says it can be a result of sudden trauma,” Riku explained slowly. “Something happened after we left the beach, and we figured it’d be best to tell you before you read it in tomorrow’s paper.”

“Tomorrow’s paper?” Kairi asked, still confused. “Wait… trauma? After the beach? Riku, what’s going on?” Kairi started to sound slightly panicked. “Is Sora okay?”

“Well, physically, yeah,” Riku told her.

“Physically?” Kairi’s voice was now demanding. “Riku, tell me what happened.”

“Well…” Riku explained to Kairi the events that occurred after they’d left the beach on the Play Island for their homes. Kairi listened in total silence, to the point Riku almost thought she’d hung up. He twisted the phone cord around his finger while speaking, a nervous fidget. Sora’s reached over and joined in, close enough that their fingers brushed a few times.

“Wow,” Kairi breathed when Riku finished. “That’s… wow. And he’s not speaking? Not at all?”

“No. Hey, why don’t we meet up tomorrow? We’re both pretty tired; I just thought you should learn about this from us first.”

“Yeah… the papers are going to have a field day.” Kairi let out a yawn, then giggled. “Guess I should get to sleep too. I’ll call you two in the morning, okay?”

“Okay, sounds good,” Riku agreed. “Goodnight.” He noticed Sora waving his hand, and Riku smiled. “Sora says goodnight, too.”

“Goodnight, Sora,” Kairi said gently. “And Riku,” she added. Then there was a click and the phone’s dial tone sounded. Riku quickly returned the phone to its base; he hated that sound.

“Okay. Ready for bed?” Riku asked, and Sora nodded sleepily. Riku stood up, but Sora grabbed his wrist, looking slightly panicked. “Hey, it’s okay, I’m just going to turn off the light,” he promised.

Riku observed the room once he’d flicked the lightswitch. Tonight was clear with plenty of moonlight, but cloudy days and moonless nights could become an issue—he wasn’t exactly afraid of the dark per se, but ever since falling deeply into it after being possessed, sleeping when too dark gave him flashbacks. Riku suspected Sora might have that trouble too; they’d have to invest in a nightlight. 

Riku went back to the bed and squeezed in next to Sora, who immediately cuddled up into Riku’s side. Riku’s family did have a guest room, with a larger bed; maybe they could use that tomorrow night, if Sora still insisted on sharing a bed, which Riku suspected might happen. He didn’t know how long these kinds of traumatic reactions lasted, but Riku had a feeling it wouldn’t disappear overnight. Riku also expected Sora to be staying with his family for the foreseeable future; technically the brunette would now own the house his mom had lived in, but chances are Sora would not want to set foot in there again. They’d work that out later. 

But now, it was time for sleep.


	2. Shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riku's mom takes Riku and Sora to buy new clothes. Kairi tags along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may have noticed last chapter, and definitely will in this one, but in this (and most my fics) the Destiny Islands are somewhere in the 90s technology-wise. I figured that makes the most sense considering the time the first game came out and Sora's woefully inept understanding of modern technology—he knows what computers are but not really how to use them, and had clearly never seen a smartphone before by the way he treated his GummiPhone. Thus, they left the Destiny Islands in the 90s.

Riku must have fallen into a dreamless sleep, because the next thing he knew he smelled pancakes and bacon and the sun was shining in his window. His phone was also ringing. Riku reached for it, but found his movement halted by the weight strewn across him. Confused, Riku looked down to find Sora wrapped tightly around him like a monkey. Riku carefully wiggled until he was in a half-seated position, only for the brunette to grumble slightly and grab onto him tighter. Riku stretched out, eventually catching his finger on the phone cord and pulling the receiver towards him that way. It was a miracle he got to it before it stopped ringing! Riku fumbled with it slightly, then answered with a mumbled “Hello?”

He was met with a giggle. “Sounds like I woke you,” came Kairi’s voice.

“It’s fine,” Riku said, still only half-awake. “My parents are making breakfast anyway; they’d probably wake us soon anyway.”

“Oh, did I wake Sora up too?” Kairi asked.

Riku glanced down at the brunette. “No, he’s still out like a light, you know him.” Clingy, too. Waking up like this heavily reminded Riku of their childhood.

Kairi got straight to the point. “So, you said we could meet up today?”

“Yeah. I think my mom wants to take us shopping though; I have nothing that fits, and although they fit him I’m sure Sora doesn’t want all my hand-me-downs.”

“Oh? But what about that weird crop top thing?” Kairi teased.

Riku groaned. “Ugh, don’t remind me! That thing needs to burn.”

“Ah, we finally agree on that,” Kairi said, a grin evident in her voice. “Well, if you’re going clothes shopping, I’m going with you!”

“Huh? You need new clothes too? But you only were gone a few weeks.”

Kairi sighed in amusement. “Riku. One, you can never have too many clothes. Two, you’ve been away from the islands for two years, so are woefully ignorant of the current teen fashion trends. And your parents definitely don’t know fashion either, since they let you get away with that crop top.”

Riku groaned. “Stop reminding me of that!”

“Oh no. I’m going to hold that over you for centuries.”

Riku rolled his eyes, even if she couldn’t see. “Humans don’t live centuries, Kairi.”

“So? I’ll haunt you, then. And then when we reincarnate, I’ll keep that memory, find you, and tease you about it again.”

Riku laughed loudly at that, which caused Sora to get up. 

Sora blinked at Riku sleepily. “R’ku?” he mumbled quietly, and Riku turned to Sora, surprised he’d spoken, although barely. Had he recovered?

“Hey there sleepyhead,” Riku said quietly. “Kairi’s on the phone. Want to talk to her?”

Sora looked at Riku in confusion, then slowly looked around the room. His eyes widened—Riku could see in Sora’s eyes the exact moment he remembered what had happened the previous day. Sora froze for a moment, then covered his mouth with his hands and leapt out of the bed, scrambling for a wastebasket, into which he promptly vomited.

“Um, Kairi, I’ll have to call you back,” Riku said quickly, then hung up the phone and rushed over to Sora.

Riku’s mom came into the room soon after, responding to the sound to find Sora leaned over the waste basket shaking with Riku rubbing his back. Thankfully it hadn’t been too severe.

“He woke up confused, and when he remembered what had happened he got sick,” Riku explained. “He did say my name first though…” he added quietly.

“Yes, physical reactions are not unheard of,” Riku’s mother said gently, “especially if the memory causing the flashback included such. If it follows usual trends, it’ll probably be like this for a few days, until everything is fully processed. And even then he’ll probably have occasional flashbacks. These things don’t go away.”

Riku nodded. “I know.” He was no stranger to flashbacks; they’d all been through a lot the past couple of years, after all. He hadn’t know it could cause such severe physical symptoms though.

Riku’s mom turned back to Sora. “Sora, honey, how are you feeling? Do you feel like you’ll be sick again?”

Sora shook his head. Had he gone silent again?

“Okay. Well, we made pancakes for breakfast; do you think you’re up to that?”

Sora paused in thought, then replied with a nod and small smile. Riku smiled slightly at that; pancakes had been Sora’s favorite breakfast food before the islands fell, and it seemed like it still was. Riku’s mom probably made them because of that.

Once the two boys had dressed (well, Sora did; Riku hadn’t changed) and gone through the general morning routine of teeth-brushing and face-washing—with Sora still practically attached to Riku during the whole thing—they headed down to breakfast. Riku’s parents had gone all out: three different kinds of pancakes (chocolate chip, banana, and blueberry), bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, and even home fries, all placed in the center of the table so people could take whatever they wanted. It was much too much food for four people, but it was all mouthwatering.

Similar to the previous evening, Riku ate a lot, but Sora barely did. He seemed to like the pancakes, of which he ate a couple, and nibbled at some bacon, but that was it. Well, he did throw up earlier so maybe he was still nauseous. Or, maybe his appetite had simply changed over the past couple years; Riku had been watching Sora, but not quite that closely.

As they finished eating, Riku remembered Kairi’s call. “Hey, mom, Kairi said she wants to go shopping with us, if that’s okay. She said something about not trusting us with fashion.”

Riku’s mom giggled. “Sounds like Kairi. Sure, she can come. We’ll pick her up on the way.”

“Awesome, thanks.” Riku jumped up, heading for the kitchen phone on the wall to let Kairi know.

The car ride to the large indoor mall on the next island over was quiet. Kairi sat in front whereas Sora sat with Riku in the back seat, as when Riku tried sitting in the front Sora had tried to sit on his lap again. So now Sora sat next to Riku, curled up into his side.

Kairi had brought the daily local paper to show them, as Riku’s parents only subscribed to the Sunday one, and Riku leaned over her shoulder to read it—he didn’t want to bring it to the back, as when he asked Sora if he wanted to look, Sora only curled in closer to his side. The headline was huge, reflecting how unusual such an act was in the small town. Thankfully the photo was not of the murder, rather of the house, with a smaller one of Sora’s mother herself, from when she’d been alive. Sora’s name was not mentioned, being a minor, but it did of course say that he’d been the one to find her. Still, their friends would be able to extrapolate from there to realize it was Sora. Hopefully they wouldn’t be too nosy, though if Selphie had remained the same in that regard that was a lost cause.

Speak of the devil; as soon as the group entered the mall, that is exactly who they ran into. Selphie saw them and her eyes lit up and she ran over. “Kairi! You’re back!” She gave the girl a gigantic hug. “Ohmygod, is that Sora and Riku, too? You guys, it’s been forever! So, where were you? When did you get back? Why didn’t you tell anyone you left?!” She thankfully must have not seen today’s paper yet, since she kept the needling to their disappearance and didn’t mention the murder.

“What? But they did tell you!” Kairi said with a practiced gasp. “They went on an exchange program! And then I went to visit them for the last few weeks… don’t tell me you forgot?”

Selphie crinkled her brow in confusion for a moment. “Right… yeah, I remember, must have blanked out a moment, haha,” she said quickly. She clearly did not remember, as the story was a lie made up the previous day, but Selphie was the gossip queen; forgetting something about a friend as big as this would tarnish her reputation, and she had no reason to think Kairi would be lying. “So, whatcha doing at the mall?”

“These two are fashion disasters right now,” Kairi said with no hesitation. “I’m here to correct that.”

“Oooh, good luck!” Selphie said. “Make sure Riku doesn’t get any weird crop tops this time.”

“What! Not you too,” Riku complained with a blush, garnering a laugh from the girls and even his mom.

Selphie’s pocket beeped, and she took out a small handheld device. “Aww, man, mom’s paging me AGAIN,” she complained. “Every five minutes; she’s so impatient! And it’s probably just to tell me she’ll be late again, which is basically a given.” Selphie rolled her eyes. “I gotta go find a payphone; see you later!” Selphie gave Kairi a small peck on the cheek, causing Kairi to blush slightly, then jogged towards the food court, which had some phone booths near it. Riku caught Kairi's eye with a raised eyebrow, to which Kairi responded by mouthing 'later'.

“Hmm. Maybe I should get you two some pagers, too,” Riku’s mom mused as they headed for one of the clothing stores popular with teens. “Think they’d work if you went travelling again?”

Riku laughed. “I don’t think they get inter-world coverage, mom. Besides, aren’t they expensive? They have a monthly fee, right?” Riku’s family wasn’t poor, but they weren’t rich either. They already had to buy an entire wardrobe.

“Yeah. My parents won’t let me get one,” Kairi said sadly. “They said the island’s small enough that if a friend isn’t answering their phone, I can just go find them.” She shrugged.

Riku’s mom then headed to the bathroom, saying she’d meet the kids in the store.

“Oh, hey, guys!” came a loud voice up ahead. Were they yelling at them? The person was waving. Riku squinted his eyes, then realized it was Wakka and Tidus, both of whom had grown a lot of muscle over the past couple years. Like, wow. If Riku hadn't been crushing on Sora the past who-knew-how-many years… 

“They’re on the football team,” Kairi informed Riku, catching his train of thought. “And basically all other sports teams… they could probably take you in a fight now.” Riku simply raised an eyebrow at Kairi and she giggled. “Okay, okay, maybe not a real fight,” Kairi conceded. “But if you don’t use magic, special abilities, keyblades—”

She was cut off by Tidus and Wakka finally catching up to them. “Yo! Selphie told us you were back!” Wakka said, confusing Riku. When?

“Oh, she sent a message,” Tidus explained, realizing why Riku appeared confused, holding up a pager and grinning. “Convenient, huh? You got one?”

“We just got back,” Riku reminded them. “Does everyone have text pagers now?” he wondered. They'd been rare when he left the Islands.

Wakka shook his head. “Nah, bro. Mostly just the rich kids. Status symbol kinda thing.”

“Excuse me?” Tidus said, mock offended. “This is a useful tool!”

“Yeah, for gossip,” Wakka quipped back.

“So, where were you all?” Tidus asked, swiftly changing the subject.

“Really? You forgot too?” Kairi spoke up. “And I thought Selphie was wrong when she said all football players were dumb.”

Wakka and Tidus turned bright red. “We remember!” Tidus protested.

“Yeah! So tell us about it!” Wakka added.

“It was just an exchange program,” Riku said with an air of nonchalance. “Lots of study and stuff. Travelling isn’t quite as cool when you have to write essays about it.”

“Aww, bummer,” Wakka said.

“Hey, Sora, you’re awfully quiet,” Tidus noted suddenly.

Sora turned to Tidus, looking at him blankly.

“Oh, he’s just not feeling very well. Woke up with a sore throat,” Riku explained.

Tidus glanced at Sora and Riku’s hands—Sora hadn’t let go of Riku’s the entire time they’d been at the mall—and raised an eyebrow. “Sore throat, huh?” he grinned teasingly.

Riku wasn’t sure what he was implying, but Kairi clearly did. “Tidus!” she said, playfully slapping him. “It’s not like that!”

“Not like what?” Riku asked, confused.

“Just, ignore them,” Kairi waved off.

Thankfully at that point Riku’s mother returned, and the two boys bid them farewell, saying something about visiting a sports store for a new blitzball.

Riku, Kairi, Sora, and Riku’s mom proceeded with their shopping adventure. Sora didn’t seem to care what clothes he got—Kairi jokingly made him try on a dress, and Sora just shrugged in response when she teasingly said he looked good and should get it (or, maybe not so teasingly; somehow he actually did manage to pull off the valley girl look). Sora was, however, excited to find Riku clothes, bringing him way too many things to try on. Kairi, too, had a share of outfits chosen by Sora, though not nearly as many as Riku. It was quite a discordant attitude, between the despondency when it came to himself and the excitement when it came to his two best friends. Throughout it all, Sora didn’t speak a word.

Riku’s mom insisted on paying for not only Riku’s, as expected, but also for Sora’s clothing, before the brunette had even opened his wallet. Which, Riku realized, probably would not have the correct currency, because moogle shops, where one could exchange munny for whatever currency the world you were on had, seemed to be universal everywhere except the Islands—Riku would have to see what was in his old piggy-bank at home. Riku cringed whenever he saw the total at each store; his mom had always been generous when it came to getting him clothes, but still, it was pretty high. Riku felt a bit undeserving, still feeling guilt over everything, but his mother wouldn’t take any arguing, not stopping until they reached some quota known only to her. Riku must have had twenty outfits by the end! Riku’s mom tried to get Sora that many too, but Sora seemed to be ridiculously picky about things, which was weird as he hadn’t been that way about clothes since he was a little kid. Luckily they also had Riku’s old clothes to work with, which it seemed Sora was more than happy to wear regardless of what they were, and he told them that—albeit, it took them about five minutes to figure that out, as neither Sora nor Riku had ever been very good at charades. Riku never thought he’d miss Sora’s hyperactive ramblings as much as he currently did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter, they go to Disney Castle! How will everyone there react to Sora's condition? Daisy, who is conveniently a child psychologist, may have some ideas on what exactly is going on with the brunette.


	3. Disney Castle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riku, Sora, and Kairi go to Disney Castle, where they'll be living for the foreseeable future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Roughly 4k words.
> 
> José canonically speaks in a mixture of Spanish and English (at least, in the older stuff; I haven't seen the newer series). I haven't had a Spanish class since high school, which was ten years ago, so forgive me if it's sub-par. Feel free to tell me if something's off, so I can correct it.

“Why’s he not speaking?” Donald demanded rudely, in reference to Sora, as he glared at Riku. In response, Sora grabbed Riku’s arm with both of his and shifted behind him slightly.

Riku sighed; he was too tired to explain everything. It was late, and he was still processing it all. Sora’s mom being in some sort of cross-world witness protection had been a completely unexpected curve ball! When the off-world police officers—one human and one reptilian—had shown up early that morning, Riku had been speechless. Normally the world that had sent her there would take charge of Sora and find a place for him, but upon learning Sora was a keyblade wielder (both he and Riku had drawn their keyblades upon seeing a non-human creature at Riku’s doorstep) they contacted Yen Sid instead, as was procedure, who then contacted Mickey. It was very possible, if not probable, that Sora’s mom’s murder was unrelated, and even if it was the perpetrator probably didn’t know she had a kid as she'd been newly pregnant when sent to the Islands, but they wanted to be safe. Riku wished they’d tell them exactly what the circumstances requiring the protection had been, but their policy was firm in their confidentiality clauses. They wouldn’t even tell Sora what he was supposed to be hiding from, although if that was the decision of the inter-world witness protection people or Yen Sid was unknown. Not that Sora even seemed to want to know; he seemed almost completely unresponsive when the officers were speaking to him. The one even rudely commented that it was like trying to explain things to a toddler.

Either way, Sora was being sent off-world, and both Riku and Kairi following was a given. Riku felt bad about leaving his family so soon after returning, but thankfully they were very understanding. He also felt guilty about not being able to use all the new clothing his mother had gotten him, but his mother had assured them that’s what returns were for after making sure he’d packed a large suitcase with as many outfits as could fit between his and Sora’s. Kairi had a suitcase, too, much smaller as it wasn’t shared. Riku’s dad had gone to Sora’s house and collected the photographs that had been hung on the wall—frames removed—for Sora to take with him; Sora had broken into tears upon seeing them, and didn’t put the little stack of memories down for over an hour, holding them to his heart. Riku promised his parents that they would visit when they could, or at least find some way to keep in contact. The moogles probably had a way; didn’t they run a postal service in addition to shops? And speaking of moogles, Sora had found a teddy-bear-sized moogle doll in Riku’s closet and would not let go of it. Moogle items had been popular when they were little, despite real ones not existing on the Islands. It had been a big shock to go to other worlds and find living ones.

Donald and Goofy had arrived late in the evening to pick up the three wielders, completely in the dark as to why they were performing an emergency pickup only two days after they’d last parted. They also had been unaware of Sora’s current… condition, since previously the only ones who knew about that were Riku’s and Kairi’s families.

“Well?” Donald asked, tapping his foot in impatience. “What did you do?”

“Me?!” Riku asked in surprise. “I didn’t do anything!”

“Well, something happened!”

"He's still in shock," Kairi explained, who thankfully had come prepared, handing Donald a copy of the local paper. The duck’s mouth fell open as he read the article; he was left speechless afterwards.

“Gawrsh, that sounds awful,” Goofy commented, reading over Donald’s shoulder.

“She was in some sort of cross-world witness protection, which is why Sora needs to leave,” Riku explained.

“That still doesn’t explain why he isn’t talking,” Donald said indignantly, not letting the subject drop. “Or that moogle doll,” he added. Riku wanted to strangle the duck; had he never learnt any tact?

Goofy put his hand on Donald’s shoulder and said, “Now, Donald, Sora can talk when he’s ready.”

“But it’s weird!”

Sora opened his mouth and faltered slightly, as if struggling to speak, but no sound came out. He bit his lip and made a small strangled noise, looking down and clutching Riku’s arm nearly tight enough to cut off circulation while using his other arm to squeeze the moogle doll to his chest. Well, at least he had tried to speak; that was a start, Riku figured. Sora had been in and out of awareness since the event, which had already been two days prior. Sometimes he was cognizant enough to understand things and communicate perfectly, albeit silently, but other times he’d stare into space thinking about who-knows-what, if thinking at all. Which wasn’t that unusual, as Sora tended to daydream, but the difference was that usually he was aware enough to snap out of his thoughts at even a whisper of his name whereas now those lapses of awareness required physically shaking him to get him to react or just waiting it out when he still didn’t respond. And then at other times, Sora would seem aware of things, but would act more like a child than anything—which appeared to be his current state.

“Donald!” Kairi snapped. “That’s no way to treat someone going through trauma!”

The duck scoffed. “Whatever. Let’s just go.” He turned and walked into the GummiShip. Kairi and Riku looked at each other in wide-eyed concern.

“Aww, don’t mind him,” Goofy said, noting their expressions. “He’s just not in a very good mood.” Riku rolled his eyes at the dog’s words; that duck was rarely in a good mood it seemed, at least from Riku's observations. Goofy continued, “Remember, the GummiShip runs on happy faces!” he sauntered into the ship, smiling.

“I still don’t believe that,” Riku grumbled, and Kairi giggled while Sora nuzzled Riku’s shoulder slightly, which Riku knew could be interpreted as amusement. He was getting better at understanding Sora’s current brand of wordless communication.

Goofy drove the ship after a brief argument with a belligerent Donald—apparently the duck had been ordered not to drive when possible by Chip and Dale due to too many crashes. Sora, Riku, and Kairi cuddled up on the bench seat along the side of the ship. Disney castle wasn’t that far away, a few hours at most, yet by the time they arrived Sora had managed to fall asleep.

Riku shook Sora slightly to wake him—and so he could get up himself, as Sora again had managed to sneak into his lap.

Sora blinked open his eyes and looked around in significant confusion, as though he didn’t know where they were or how they’d gotten there.

“Sora?” Riku asked, concerned. “Do you know where we are?” he ventured—it honestly appeared as if Sora had forgotten.

Sora stilled for a bit, frowning slightly, then slowly nodded.

“Okay, good. Can you get up please? We need to leave the ship now.”

Sora slowly stood up; when Riku did too, Sora grabbed onto his arm again. It reminded Riku how he used to cling to his mom when he was little… oh. Was that related? If Sora was acting childlike… 

Sora then noticed the moogle doll had fallen to the floor, and scrambled to pick it up again, as though it were a lifeline.

"Heya, everyone!" Mickey greeted them jovially as they descended the landing ramp.

Donald interrupted before Mickey could say anything more. “Something’s wrong with Sora!” he complained. “He’s not acting right!”

Riku frowned as Sora clutched him and the moogle doll tighter. Seriously? 

“Donald, that’s extremely rude!” Mickey chided sharply, then he turned to Riku and Sora.

Riku explained unprompted. “He hasn’t spoken since the… well, since the day we got back and he found… well, you know. My mom says it’s a reaction to the shock—she’s a trauma nurse, so sees things like this fairly often.”

“Hmm…” Mickey thought for a moment, hand on his chin. His gaze fell to the doll. “Is it just a lack of speech?”

Riku shook his head. “No. He’ll randomly be unresponsive or slow to respond to things—my mom says it’s probably what’s called, ah, what was it, dissa… disso...”

“Dissociation,” Mickey provided. “Does he seem to recognize his surroundings and people he meets?”

Riku frowned and scrunched his brow, unsure where the line of questioning was going. “I think so? Sometimes he looks confused, especially when waking up or coming out of an unresponsive moment, but then he’ll recognize things. It’s the same with people too. He knows you.” He looked down at Sora. “You know Mickey, right?” Sora thought for a moment, then nodded shyly. “See?” Riku continued. 

Mickey frowned in thought. “I think it’d be best to talk to Daisy,” he concluded after a moment. “She’s a child psychologist, so she would know more than me about all this.”

“What! When did that happen?!” Donald demanded.

The female duck in question appeared standing behind Donald, wings on her hips. “Over the years you’ve been galivanting around the worlds!” she huffed. Daisy looked angry; Riku suspected Donald hadn’t told her he was leaving.

“Wak!” Donald swerved around. “Daisy!”

“You left without leaving, AGAIN!” Daisy accused, confirming Riku’s suspicion. “How many times do I have to tell you to tell me before you leave?”

“But Daisy, it was an emergency! And only to pick them up!”

“Emergency or not, I was literally in the next room! Would it have killed you to say goodbye? Instead, you walked past! And I had no idea it would only be a quick trip this time!” Daisy looked more hurt by the end then upset.

Donald lowered his head in shame. “I’m sorry, Daisy,” he said. Riku was surprised; she really knew how to get Donald under control.

“It reminds me of you two,” Kairi said to Riku with a giggle.

“What’s like who?” Riku asked, confused.

“You and Sora. They remind me of you two.”

Riku stared at his friend blankly, not understanding.

Kairi sighed in slight aggravation. “You’re like Daisy, Sora’s like Donald. You ground him.”

Riku crinkled his brow in confusion. “Are you serious? Sora’s nothing like Donald. I don’t think it’s possible for him to reach the level of rage Donald does.”

“Well, I didn’t mean it exactly,” Kairi said, rolling her eyes. “For Sora it’s his hyperactivity and daydreaming. You were always the one who could bring him back to earth when he got his head stuck in the clouds or he became overexcited.”

“That’s not true,” Riku argued. Was it?

“If you say so…”

“So, what were you saying about my degree?” Daisy asked, once she finished chiding Donald about his rudeness.

“Well…” Mickey explained the situation.

Daisy looked over to Sora, who in response shifted closer to Riku and squeezed his doll close, which his one arm was curled around to hold it to his chest as his other arm was still clutched around Riku’s.

“Is he always so clingy?” Daisy asked.

Riku shook his head. “No, not usually. And he only does it with me.” While the affection was nice, Riku did hope it lessened soon; so much all at once was overwhelming, especially after having none for years! It was Sora, though, so it was okay. He’d been fairly clingy with Riku as a kid too, until middle-school when the other kids started to tease him for it.

Kairi added, catching the train of thought, “It’s almost like he’s a little kid again.” At those words, Sora looked at her and arranged his face into a pout (apparently the usual crossed arms that would accompany such were out, as he stayed staunchly attached to Riku’s arm). 

“Hmm…” Daisy put a hand on her chin as she thought. Hey eyes moved to the stuffed moogle in Sora’s arm. “Sora, how old are you?” Daisy asked suddenly, to Riku’s confusion.

Sora tilted his head slightly and looked at Daisy, confused as well. He didn’t make a move to answer.

“Sora?” Riku prodded, wondering if Kairi and Daisy were onto something. “Do you know your age?”

Sora thought for a moment, looked at his hand and moved his fingers a bit as though counting, then gave up and shrugged. He looked up at Riku, questioning.

“You’re sixteen,” Riku told him gently, wary of how Sora didn’t seem to know.

Sora looked highly confused at that, possibly even a little affronted, and shook his head vigorously. Riku just looked at Sora in surprise, not at all expecting such a reaction.

“Hmmm. I think he’s regressed back to a childhood persona,” Daisy ventured. “That can be a reaction to trauma, more common in children and teenagers than adults. It might also explain why he isn’t speaking.”

Riku blinked a few times. “What? But he’s aware of things. And he understands what we say to him—even helped my dad make dinner. Oh, and he summoned the keyblade, too, so clearly he remembers all that.”

“Well, memories, knowledge, cognitive awareness, personality, and the like are all separate things,” Daisy explained. “He can have his memories of everything and retain the knowledge of how to do things, yet still have regressed to his childhood persona, just like someone can lose their memories yet still overall act like their physical age.”

Riku bit his lip, worried. “Will he revert back?”

Daisy smiled and nodded. “Most likely. Unless it's the result of a physical brain injury, these things are usually temporary, although it’s tough to give a timeframe.”

“Is there anything we can do in the meantime?” Kairi wondered.

“Well, that’s complicated,” Daisy said. “Although, first I say let’s leave the GummiShip hangar.” She giggled, and everyone started walking into the castle. “It’s rather late right now, but tomorrow we’ll go to my office in town, and I’ll do a full evaluation. What led up to this? Was it the fighting you all were involved in?”

“Oh, no, it happened shortly after we returned, due to this,” Kairi said, handing Daisy the copy of the newspaper she’d been carrying. “It doesn’t mention the name, but Sora’s the kid.”

Daisy’s eyes widened and she stifled a gasp. “My goodness. Well, that certainly would be a trigger for such,” she concluded. 

“Since when do you have an office in town?” Donald interrupted to ask Daisy.

Daisy rolled her eyes. “Seriously, Donald? For two years now! Oh, wait, of course you wouldn’t know, since you were gone for all of that time!”

“But I didn’t even know you were getting a degree!”

“Because, again, you were never around! Always off somewhere or another doing Royal Mage stuff. And whenever you were back you spent more time with JOSÉ and PANCHITO than me!”

“Wak! That’s not true!” Donald protested. “Er. Is it?”

“Yes, it is! They’re always visiting! Or at least, José is! Ugh. It’s almost like you’re dating him instead of me. I’m glad he isn’t here right now, at least; maybe you’ll finally spend some time with me!”

Donald shuffled nervously. “Er, about that…”

“About WHAT, Donald? Is he visiting AGAIN?!”

“Uh. Um. Wait! There can’t be that many kids around here who need a therapist,” Donald said, unabashedly swerving the conversation back to the earlier subject. “And don’t you have things you do at the castle, too?”

Daisy glared at him, clearly noticing the abrupt and intentional change of subject but tersely answered the question anyway. “Well, firstly, psychiatry is different from therapy, although I do do that too. Secondly, more kids than you’d think have reason to see someone, even around here, and thirdly, I’m capable of doing more than one thing, unlike you! But that aside, it’s by appointment, so I’m not actually at the office but a few times a week, making it easier to juggle that and castle duties. Tomorrow I luckily have no one scheduled. Well, scratch that, one person is now.” She took out a squarish device with a touchscreen and typed something.

Sora leaned over slightly to look, and Riku asked, “Is that a… what are they called, a PDA?”

“Oh!” Mickey interjected. “That’s what Chip and Dale are calling a GummiPhone! It can do lots of stuff!”

“Wait, it’s a phone? Can it call off-world?” Riku asked excitedly; maybe he and Kairi could easily contact their parents after all!

“Well, that’s what they’re designed for! Basically, they’re mini versions of the communicators on the GummiShips. Right now they’re still in test phases, but the goal will be for all of us world-travelers to have them so we can communicate!”

“Can they call regular phones, too?” Kairi asked, catching on. “Like, our parents and my g—er, guardians?” Riku held back a chuckle; smooth, Kairi.

Mickey frowned, either ignoring or not catching the small slip. “Hmm. You’d have to ask Chip and Dale about that. But, they will be able to send e-mails! Your parents or guardians have those, right?”

Kairi nodded, but Riku shrugged. His family didn’t have a home computer, but his dad used one at work; maybe he had one there? Riku wasn’t sure.

“Oh, really? That’s too bad,” Mickey said. “Well, talk to Chip and Dale, I’m sure they’d love to find a way to connect it with your families’ phones! And if not, we can give them GummiPhones, too!”

Soon the group arrived at a dining room that contained a large enough table to easily seat everyone there that was lavishly filled with all sorts of foods. Minnie waited there, but before she could greet them, Mickey hurried over and whispered something in her ear, probably warning her about Sora’s condition. She nodded, then smiled at everyone and said hello. 

Waiting with Minnie was a green anthropomorphic parrot, whom Daisy immediately began glaring daggers at and watched with a sharp eye as he hopped over and gave Donald a tremendous hug.

“¡Saludos, amigos!” José greeted everyone, spinning a small closed umbrella like a baton as he spoke with an arm still wrapped around Donald. “¡Para los que no saben, me llamo José Carioca, y vengo de Brasil! ¡Mucho encantado de conocerte!” At receiving blank stares from the trio, he clarified, “...Or in your language, ‘Hello, I am José and hope we can be friends!’” 

Riku thought that was probably a gross simplification of whatever the parrot had said in whatever language that was. Riku had gotten too used to translation magic, he supposed, although it was odd that it didn’t seem to work on the parrot’s tongue.

“Is Panchito going to visit too?” Donald asked with a hopeful expression.

“Ay, él no está visitando,” José said sadly. “He is, how you say, sick.”

“Sick!” Donald exclaimed.

“Si, con amor. Conoció a una chica.”

Donald gave José a flat look. “Seriously? You had me worried!” He and Jose then both laughed amicably. It seemed Donald understood the language.

“Now, tell me, ¿quien son tus amigos?” José asked.

Further greetings were made, as well as a subtle warning about Sora’s condition, and soon everyone found themselves seated at the large dining table. Riku examined the multitude of various dishes, some which he recognized and others that were unknown to him.

Sora picked at his food again, and Riku recalled that he’d actually been a fairly picky eater when he was younger. Surprisingly it was Donald, sitting on the other side of Sora (Riku was of course next to Sora too), who began trying to coax Sora into eating more, much more gently than Riku would expect. 

Mickey, on Riku’s other side, noticed Riku watching them, and explained in a whisper, “Donald raised his nephews since they were infants.”

“Huh,” Riku said, surprised. He wouldn’t have ever expected Donald to have raised kids. “You mean, Scrooge’s kids?” he asked. They were the only nephews he knew the duck having.

“Oh, no, Scrooge is Donald’s uncle!” Mickey corrected. “He only took them in when Donald left to find me. Before that Daisy and Minnie would watch them when Donald traveled.”

“I see. So, are they coming back here as well?” Riku wondered. “Since Donald’s back?”

Mickey shook his head. “Nah. They really enjoy running the shops, so are going to stay there. Besides, could you imagine him raising three teens?”

“I’m right here, you know,” Donald said, glaring at the two over Sora, who was actually eating more normally now.

Mickey laughed. “So, that isn’t true? You would actually want to raise three teens?”

Donald paused. “Okay, maybe you have a point,” he conceded. “Raising one was plenty,” he joked. Riku was confused for a moment, then realized the duck meant Sora. Goofy and Donald had essentially been foster parents for the brunette, even if Sora called them friends. They’d been there as soon as Sora had been thrown from the Islands, and stayed with him for two years, helping him learn about how things worked outside the islands and guiding him on his journey. Riku suddenly felt guilty for disliking the two so much; maybe he should give them more of a chance, for Sora’s sake. Besides, he didn't actually know them well; it was probably lingering misplaced jealousy than actual dislike.

“Meow!” A light brown cat with dark brown paws, head, and tail (a normal one, not anthropomorphic) suddenly leapt onto the table and tried to grab some fish.

“Milton!” Minnie scolded. “We do not jump on tables! Go to the chef, he’ll give you some scraps if you want fish.”

The cat lowered its head in apology and jumped away, slinking through a cat door into the kitchen. Sora watched it with wide-eyes; Riku had to grab his arm to prevent him following.

“The cat listens to you?” Kairi asked.

Minnie giggled. “Well, he does this pretty much every night,” she explained. “Surprised Pluto isn’t here too, honestly.”

As if on cue, the yellow dog plodded into the room and sat down at Mickey’s feet, looking up as though expecting scraps. When Minnie wasn’t looking, Riku noticed Mickey slip the dog a biscuit.

Dinner concluded with chocolate ice-cream, which Sora had been ecstatic over. José entertained them via playing his umbrella as a flute—as in, it actually made audible music, but only when he did so—which was strange, but Riku had seen stranger things. Sora was overjoyed at the display, so much that José pulled him over to dance and sing with him and Donald. Daisy had a look of obvious jealousy as she watched Donald and José interact—a jealousy Riku understood all too well, as before the Islands fell he was steeped in such whenever Sora and Kairi interacted. She probably had nothing to worry about, though, considering half of José’s stories seemed to paint him as quite the womanizer—and Donald too—particularly in a place called “Brasil”.

As dinner concluded and enchanted brooms began clearing the table, everyone collectively decided it was time for sleep due to the extremely late hour. Sora definitely was ready for sleep, as he was nearly asleep already as he leaned on Riku. Riku nudged Sora to stand, but the boy refused. Riku ended up having to carry Sora, which the brunette seemed very happy about and soon began to doze in Riku’s arms, until they reached the guest rooms.

The castle’s guest rooms were quite lavish and there were plenty of them, but Riku and Sora ended up sharing one anyway at Sora’s insistence and the others’ amusement at the childish display—a near-tantrum, really, although a silent one. The room had a king-sized bed, so it wouldn’t be as difficult to share as Riku’s twin one had been. Before the brunette could fall asleep again, Riku gently instructed Sora to change into pajamas—Riku’s old ones—which the brunette did sleepily before crawling into the bed. Riku had pajamas now, too, consisting of dark green shorts and a lighter green tee. It was a bit chilly in this world for shorts, but the Islands were so warm that they didn’t sell pajamas with anything longer, even in winter. Thankfully the beds had heavy blankets to compensate for that.

Sora, along with the moogle doll, immediately curled his body around Riku's, after which he almost instantly fell asleep. Riku wrapped his arms around Sora, and within minutes he too drifted off, the boys perfectly comfortable in each other's arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: A visit to Disney Town, where ice-cream is eaten and Daisy evaluates Sora's condition.


	4. Evaluation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riku brings Sora to Disney Town for a psychiatric evaluation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had planned to post this yesterday, but having Monday off made me mix up the days, lol.
> 
> Chapter is roughly 2.7k words. Most chapters will probably be around such (I know, they're shorter ones than most my other fics).
> 
> As to the psychiatric stuff in here and how Daisy does the evaluation, please forgive me if it's not up to modern standards. It's been over a decade since I went to a child psychologist. Plus I never personally saw a child that young be evaluated—although this is a fictional anthropomorphic animal world that might not do things exactly the same as our human world would anyway, and doesn't seem to be a very modern world compared to ours, so unless there's any really egregious errors I'm gonna say this is how they do things in Disney Town even if it doesn't match Earth's current ways of doing it.

The two boys woke to Kairi crashing on top of them. Riku, already half awake when she entered but unable to move with the vise grip known as Sora wrapped around him, made a grunt of annoyance in response. Sora replied with a vocalized “owww” and burrowed his face into Riku’s chest.

Kairi and Riku froze. “Sora!” the former proclaimed happily. “You can speak again?”

Sora looked up at her, blinking sleepily. “Hngh?” he mumbled in confusion, but said nothing else.

“Sora?” Kairi prodded, yielding no response.

Riku sighed; shouldn’t have gotten his hopes up. “He woke up saying… something the past couple days,” Riku explained. Specifically, Riku’s name, but that was a little embarrassing for some reason, even though it made sense as Sora had woken up to him. “Just one word. Then silence again, I’d guess once he realizes where he is and what happened.”

Kairi sighed. “Well, guess these things don’t really get fixed overnight, huh?”

“Yeah…” Riku sighed and sat up, turning to the brunette who had tried to drag him back down. “Come on, Sora, you gotta get up. We have a busy day today.”

“Don’ wanna,” Sora definiantly mumbled. Riku and Kairi’s eyes widened. Could Sora actually have returned to his usual personality?

He hadn’t, it was soon discovered. For the most part, Sora was still quiet, and was acting basically the same as the previous day, although occasionally he did say a simple word or two, such as “hungry”. However, it only seemed to be when he was alone with Riku and Kairi. 

Once dressed—again in Riku’s old clothes despite his new ones being packed, to Kairi’s annoyance, as she’d helped them shop—Sora scrambled to free the moogle doll from its prison of tangled blankets and grabbed Riku’s hand as they went to breakfast, which was again quite a grand affair. Riku wondered if this was typical or if it was just because they were here. He asked Mickey, who told him that usually it was smaller but the chefs—who turned out to be enchanted brooms—were really excited that not only were Mickey and the others finally back but that there were also new people around. Minnie, who managed them, would tell them to calm down.

After breakfast, Riku and Kairi went with Sora to the nearby town to explore a bit before Sora’s appointment with Daisy. Sora decided to hold both Riku and Kairi’s hands and swing them as they walked, handing Riku the moogle doll to keep safe for him.

Then Sora noticed the ice cream stand that featured “fun and fancy” flavors and shapes. He excitedly ran up to it, then made a whining noise when he saw it was closed.

Riku sighed and shared a fond look with Kairi. This was a tendency Sora had never grown out of. “We’ll get you something after we see Daisy,” Riku promised. Hopefully it’d be open by then. The sign with the hours said it should be.

Sora frowned and grumbled slightly, but then he saw some games in the distance and ran towards them, instantly forgetting the ice-cream. Talk about short attention span! When Riku and Kairi reached him, slightly out of breath—Sora was FAST!—Sora hopped up and down a bit and pointed to a game that involved hitting giant fruit back and forth, appropriately named “fruitball”. So, the three passed the time playing that, stopping when it was time for Sora’s appointment with Daisy, to Sora’s displeasure. Thankfully he’d never been the sort of kid to throw public tantrums.

Kairi left to meet Minnie—something about getting their hair and nails done—while RIku brought Sora to Daisy’s office. It was basically what you’d expect from a single-person practice: a small waiting room with a reception desk (on regular business days Daisy probably had an assistant) and only two patient rooms—one with various toys, clearly meant for younger kids, with the other being a smaller room with a couch like people would generally think of when they hear the word ‘therapy,’ probably meant for teenagers.

Daisy greeted them and then led them to the one for smaller children, to Riku’s confusion. Sora happily sat down on the floor cross-legged—he didn’t fit in the child-sized chairs—at a low table, and Daisy handed him a coloring book and crayons. Sora’s eyes lit up and he immediately got to work at it, to Riku’s surprise. That must be why this room had been chosen—if Sora was acting like a little kid, it was probably best to treat him as such for this.

After asking Riku a multitude of questions ranging from what had happened and how Sora had been acting recently followed by ones about Sora’s childhood, friendships, relationship with his mother, and all sorts of other things, Daisy asked Riku to go wait in the waiting room so she could talk to Sora alone. Riku was confused at that, but obliged—or rather, started to.

As Riku began to open the door, Sora frantically scrambled up, knocking the crayons all over as he dashed to Riku and tried pulling him back inside. Riku tried to explain he would just be in the next room, but Sora wasn’t having it, shaking his head vigorously. Eventually, he let out a loud “NO.”

“You can come back in,” Daisy said. “I only wanted to see how he reacted—as I suspected, it appears that in addition to the age regression, Sora has some severe separation anxiety.”

Riku allowed Sora to lead him to sit on the floor next to him at the low table, apparently not wanting to let Riku beyond arm’s length after that. Sora picked the crayons off the floor so he could continue coloring.

“Would that be due to the regression, or some sort of reaction to being separated for so long?” Riku wondered. Before the islands fell, there’d rarely been a day where the two had been apart. He recalled that when they were really little, the days they were apart would often result in tantrums… oh gods. If his mind thought he was a kid, did that mean he would have tantrums if Riku left his sight?

“Most likely a combination,” Daisy said. “He probably had a little due to the long sudden separation after seeing you near-daily before that, especially as he was looking for you for so long, and it would have been also strengthened by losing his mother, whom he was also close to; you and Kairi were the only other people he was that close to from the Islands, from my understanding, so since he lost her now he’s scared of losing you two even more than he had been before—especially you, as he briefly did lose you. 

“However, he would have been thinking logically enough for it to not cause as significant an impairment. A child doesn’t have that logic. When the age regression took effect, he lost that logical connection, causing extreme reactions like you just witnessed. Young children often have trouble knowing where people are if they cannot see them, so if his mental age has become as low as I suspect, you being in another room to him feels the same as you being on an entirely different world, which then triggers the memories and feelings from when you were separated. In addition, human children don’t start to develop a full sense of time until at least five or six, so telling him you’ll be back in a few minutes will be incomprehensible to him. You’re either ‘here’ or ‘not here’, and that’s it. ‘Not here’ causes significant stress, even if it’ll only be a minute.”

Riku frowned. “But he’s fine when I go to the bathroom,” Riku pointed out. Although he did wait at the door.

“Probably because he knows a bathroom break is short, so he’s not as anxious,” Daisy explained. “That’ll help point to the age he’s at. Children begin to recognize concepts such as ‘short’, ‘long’, ‘before’, and ‘after’ around age 3, as well as durations of habitual things.”

“So… he’s mentally at least three, but no more than six,” Riku concluded.

“Yes, that’s correct; I would use benchmarks to get around that issue. ‘After we eat’, ‘before bed’, et cetera. That will make more sense to him than saying specific times and lengths.”

Riku nodded. “Benchmarks, got it.”

“Good. Now, let’s see if we can narrow that age down even more.” She turned back to Sora and slid from her chair to sit at the table too. “Sora, could you answer some questions for me now?”

Sora looked at Daisy curiously, but didn’t speak. Then his eyes lit up when she brought out a set of alphabet tiles. He reached for them, coloring book abandoned.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to speak; we can use these instead, okay?” Daisy told him.

Sora held a tile in his hand, flipping it around.

“Can you use these to spell your name?” Daisy asked. 

Sora put the tile down, then stared at the array. Showly he grabbed an “S” and put it down in front of him. Then, a backwards “D”, an “R”, and an “A”. He looked up proudly when done.

“Very good, Sora!” Daisy said, despite the misplaced letter. Well, it looked similar enough to an “O”, Riku supposed.

Using various other games, picture cards, toys, and other such things to test Sora’s mental abilities, Daisy eventually determined that Sora had regressed to approximately age 4 overall, although he thankfully could still do things like read. Writing was difficult though; something having to do with recognition versus recollection, with the latter being the only one affected, thankfully. Riku wasn’t sure what he’d do if Sora couldn’t even understand what they were talking about—as it stood, he could more or less comprehend them at a level matching his physical age, with a few exceptions like time, just couldn’t properly express himself when responding as well as processed and reacted to some things like a child would (such as immediately getting upset when he thought they'd be forced into separate rooms rather than simply calmly explaining he wanted to stay with Riku). Although he couldn’t really concentrate for longer than ten seconds, so longer lectures would still be difficult… well, more difficult than usual. His ability to pay attention had always been questionable.

“So, he has all his memories and can somewhat understand things that are happening or being said to him, but is basically a 4-year-old otherwise?” Riku confirmed once Daisy was finished and Sora had returned to the coloring book. “What about the… what was it again, diss-something?’

“Yes, dissociation,” Daisy said. “The dissociative episodes you described are a separate thing, which can be triggered by many things—in this case I’d venture it triggers when he remembers something related to his mother. Avoiding that subject and things related to her is best for now.”

“Right, got it… but, wait. If he’s mentally 4 right now, shouldn’t he be speaking?” Toddlers could still speak, Riku recalled from his limited experience with them.

“Not necessarily. Often when people regress they won’t speak; although this more resembles selective mutism, as he IS speaking now, but just around the people he’s most comfortable with or in extreme duress. Selective mutism is often seen in young children. He may have had such when he was a child, which is why he’s exhibiting it now.”

“Well, he’s not speaking that much around us,” Riku clarified. “One or two words at a time, and not often.”

“Well, he’s basically four,” Daisy said with amusement. “We determined that although he can comprehend things, the way he responds to things is still like a child. Thus, the vocabulary he can recall is limited; remember, recognition and recollection are two very different things. If you've ever tried to learn a foreign language, you've probably experienced this too. Even if he starts talking more, it’s going to be fairly simple sentences, even though he can understand what you’re saying.”

Riku sighed. “Right. Is there anything else I should know about this? I don’t exactly have experience with kids.” He had no siblings, and he was a teenager; Riku hadn’t interacted with any child for many years.

“Well, I have lots of brochures about children at every age I can give you—but don’t worry, it’s not like you’ll be alone in this! Everyone at the castle will be willing to help, me included, and many of us do have experience with kids! Now, why don’t we head back to the castle; I could definitely use some lunch.”

“Agreed.” Riku stood up, Sora following with the moogle doll.

“Ice cream,” Sora said suddenly.

Riku looked at Sora for a moment, processing that, then laughed. “That’s right, I said we could get ice cream after this, didn’t I? Well, we probably should wait until after lunch.”

Sora frowned, then looked at Riku with his manipulative puppy-dog eyes. Great; he still remembered how to do that.

Riku sighed in resignation and smiled fondly at Sora. “Or we can get it now.”

Daisy went back to the castle while Riku and Sora made the pit-stop. Sora skipped happily on the way there, periodically looking back to make sure Riku was following. Riku was pleased to see Sora being more bubbly rather than clutching Riku’s arm constantly, although as soon as they actually got to the ice-cream stand Sora grabbed Riku’s hand and hid slightly behind Riku, apparently nervous about talking to a stranger, consistent with what Daisy had said would happen. 

“Which one do you want?” Riku asked Sora gently. The ice creams were all in various whimsical forms, some with quite interesting flavors. Sora settled on a bulbous one on a stick decorated in stars, which he ate on the way to the castle. On closer examination, it looked like the bumps were meant to resemble clouds coming out of the airplane-shaped candies sticking out of the top. It was some sort of cross between cotton-candy and ice-cream, Riku discovered when Sora insisted he try a bite, apparently a bit sad that Riku didn’t get one for himself even though Riku assured Sora that he was fine without one. Besides, they were ridiculously overpriced, even for being so fancy—Riku had a suspicion that Scrooge might own the shop. Sora’s happiness was worth it though. Riku vaguely wondered if he was coddling Sora a little too much.

As Riku should have predicted, as a result of the ice cream Sora was not at all hungry by the time they reached the castle’s lunch room—of course it had a separate lunch room. Kairi was already there, sporting a new shorter haircut. The room was much smaller than the dining room, but just as fancy-looking, with a crystal chandelier and many leather couches. A table in the center featured a tray with a variety of finger sandwiches and teas, and Riku eagerly served himself some before sitting on one of the sofas with it. Sora didn’t want anything; when Kairi found out why, she lectured Riku about how he should have insisted on waiting until after lunch to get Sora a dessert, even if Sora complained. Riku tried protesting, but Kairi wasn’t having it. Apparently she knew a lot about kids, as she had picked up a side job babysitting while the boys had been absent from the islands.

Mickey entered the room and served himself some food too. When he sat down he announced to the three (two?) teens (and toddler?) that Yen Sid wanted to meet them after lunch. At the Mysterious Tower, of course, because apparently he never left there, or at least that’s the impression Riku got from the wizard.

“Is it about what happened?” Riku asked. “Did they find any info on… you know?”

Mickey shook his head. “Not that I’ve heard. He probably just wants to catch up on things, see where everyone’s at. Plus, Kairi,” Mickey said as he turned to the girl, “you’re a keyblade wielder now, so he’ll surely want to discuss that with you! And Riku,” he turned to the boy, “you’ve never formally met him, right? Well, other than our brief stop there right after Sora woke. It’d probably be good to do so.”

So the group finished their food and then Riku, Kairi, Sora, Mickey, Donald (who for once remembered to tell Daisy where he was headed), and Goofy travelled via GummiShip to Yen Sid’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: What does Yen Sid want to meet about? How will he react to Sora's condition? Be prepared for angst!
> 
> It'll probably be a week before I post it, as my parents are visiting this weekend and I need to clean my apartment before then so I won't have much time to work on fics.


	5. Mysterious Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group visits Yen Sid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need to work on making better chapter titles lol. Anyway, this chapter is roughly 3k words and has lots of angst.

It was a very short trip as far as GummiSpace travel went—barely an hour—but Sora managed to fall asleep anyway, this time somehow sprawled across both Riku’s and Kairi’s laps. Donald’s solution to waking Sora was smacking him, upon which Sora actually started to cry and Goofy scolded Donald for it. That was surprising; Riku had never seen Goofy scold anyone. He wondered if Goofy would have said anything if Sora wasn’t currently more or less a 4-year-old; he certainly hadn’t in the past, although from what he observed Riku had assumed it had just been a playful dynamic, especially as Sora tended to laugh in response—but what if it had been more than that? This time it certainly wasn't playful. 

Riku decided he shouldn’t mention his thoughts on that, at least not yet; they knew he’d been watching them, but it still made Riku feel a bit creepy. Kairi had jokingly called him a ‘stalker’ when she’d found out he was basically spying on Sora the whole second journey. He'd just have to keep a close eye on Donald.

Sora, a bit dejected as they’d made him leave the moogle doll on the ship, began dragging his feet halfway up the Mysterious Tower’s seemingly endless stairs (just how many floors did this place have?). He could definitely keep walking, but Goofy decided to give him a piggyback-ride instead, which Sora delighted in. Kairi jokingly asked Riku to give her one too, squealing slightly when Riku grabbed her and flung her over his back; she climbed further up so she was sitting on his shoulders.

Needless to say, Yen Sid appeared confused when the group entered his study like that, although it was only just slightly noticeable. Otherwise the wizard’s expression was stoic, immediately signalling wisdom and authority. Goofy put Sora down, who made a disappointed whine and hurried over to Riku, grabbing his hand. Kairi put her hands on Riku’s head to flip forwards off of him in a brilliant acrobatic display.

“Welcome,” Yen Sid greeted, glancing at yet not commenting on Sora holding Riku’s hand, then got right down to business. “Kairi, it is nice to meet you. Riku, Sora, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, it is nice to see you once again. I apologize for cutting your vacations short, but recent events have highlighted the fact that we must be proactive. There is the possibility of threat, therefore we must be ready.”

“Ready for what, Sir?” Riku asked. “We haven’t been told much.”

“Does it have to do with the witness protection thing?” Kairi added.

Yen Sid looked contemplative. “Yes and no. It is highly doubtful that Sora will become a target because of that, but I would rather we be prepared nonetheless. I am more concerned about increased heartless activity and other signs that something may be coming. Therefore, Kairi, you must begin training with your keyblade. Sora, Riku, I would like you to take the Mark of Mastery exam to test how far your abilities with the keyblade have come. You will also gain new abilities by completing such.”

Sora looked at Yen Sid with curiosity, and Riku asked “What does that entail?”

Yen Sid explained, “What I have in mind is non-traditional. There are a number of worlds that are sleeping which I would like you two to go unlock the keyholes of. It is dangerous, but no more so than what you have already done. By completing such, you’ll also gain what is known as the Power of Waking, which can wake sleeping hearts. It is a very important ability which I believe we can make use of.”

“You mean, to wake Ven?” Mickey asked suddenly, looking hopeful, then frowned. “But we don’t know where Aqua hid him, nor where Aqua herself is.”

Yen Sid nodded solemnly. “Correct. We must find her. The more keyblade wielders we have, the better.”

“The better for what?” Kairi asked. “No one has told us what this supposed threat is.”

“Like I previously said, there are signs that darkness and danger are on the horizon,” Yen Sid answered.

“What about Sora, though?” Riku asked, annoyed at the wizard’s obtuseness. “Earlier you mentioned Sora could be in danger?”

“Yeah!” Donald squawked. “Why would Sora be in danger?”

Yen Sid frowned. “Again, the chance of that is miniscule… Did the police not tell you why Sora’s mother was in witness protection?”

“No,” Mickey answered. “They said it was confidential.”

“I see. Well, they should have at least told Sora,” Yen Sid said, turning to the boy in question, who donned a deer-in-the-headlights expression.

“Actually, they didn’t,” Riku answered for the brunette. “Legal tape or something about how they could only disclose it to him, and since I was there they couldn’t, but you could or something. It all happened in a bit of a blur, honestly.”

“They couldn’t talk to him without you there?” Yen Sid asked, mildly confused. “Why?”

In response, Sora clutched Riku’s arm tightly and leaned into his side. Riku sighed and put his other hand on his own forehead. “That’s why,” he said in slight exasperation.

Yen Sid seemed to be momentarily at a loss of what to say; it seemed he had not yet been informed of Sora’s ‘condition’. So instead, he ignored Sora’s unusual behavior and took to explaining. “Sora, when she was pregnant with you, your mother and a number of other members provided testimony that helped sentence a very dangerous cross-world cult leader to death. Regular members could not, but the leader, as well as his inner circle, had the ability to hop worlds. Now, they are all either dead or still in custody, and the witnesses were moved to worlds that did not have chapters of the cult in case any regular members decided to retailiate, so the chances truly are very slim that the murder is related. And even if it were, there is no reason to believe they would be aware she had a child nor that they would target her child if they did know. I am not worried on that front.”

“Wait…” Kairi said, looking like she realized something. “Did you say Sora’s mom was a cult member…? Does that mean his dad also…?”

“Sora’s mother never revealed the identity of Sora’s father,” Yen Sid said. “Now, returning back to the start of the conversation: Riku, Sora, will you two be willing to take the Mark of Mastery?”

Riku cringed. No, almost definitely not, at least for Sora. “Er. Tell us again what it entails?” he asked.

“You must enter sleeping worlds and unlock the keyholes in them. Some will be fragments trapped in time, so you may meet past versions of people you know; remember, they are not the actual person. Think of the worlds as dreams. You restored many worlds, but unlocking these will ensure they are fully formed and—Sora, are you paying attention?”

Sora was not paying attention. He was staring out the window with a blank expression and did not react to Yen Sid’s prompt. Oh. They were talking a whole lot about his mom; didn’t Daisy say that could trigger the dissociation?

“Sora, hey,” Riku said, nudging him slightly. Sora didn’t respond, so Riku jostled his shoulder a bit. Sora jumped slightly, then looked around quickly before turning to bury his head in Riku’s chest and clutch his shirt. 

“I don’t think he was paying attention,” Goofy said, pointing out the obvious.

Riku sighed. “Even if he hadn’t dissociated, that would have been too much information at once for him to process,” he explained.

“Oh! No one told you,” Mickey realized, directed at Yen Sid. “Sora’s currently… well, as a result of the trauma, he’s mentally regressed to roughly the age of four, as well as has been slipping into dissociative states.”

Yen Sid took a moment to process that. “Well, that is quite the unfortunate inconvenience,” he concluded. Riku bit down a spike of anger at the callous comment as the wizard continued. “Once he is not acting that way, he can take the exam. In the meantime, Riku, would you do so? Gaining the Power of Waking is vital.”

Riku shook his head. “Even if I wanted to do it without Sora, I don’t think he’ll let me.” In response Sora pressed his face into Riku’s chest so hard he almost fell over. "He developed some pretty severe separation anxiety, which only was enhanced by the mental regression…"

Yen Sid frowned. “You are coddling him too much, Riku. Sora, stop this nonsense. You have responsibilities as a keyblade wielder,” he said firmly.

Well, that was the exactly wrong thing to say. Everyone in the room but Sora, who sniffled slightly as though he were about to cry, glared at the wizard angrily. Mickey said, “Master, that is not the proper way to address this.”

“And treating him like a four-year-old is? He is not four. Catering to his fantasies will only encourage him to remain that way.”

“What? That isn’t the way this works at all!” Donald quacked loudly.

“He’s not like this by choice,” Kairi said in a tense voice.

“Yeah,” Goofy chimed in. “Once he’s back to his teenage mindset, he’ll probably be awfully embarrassed about this.”

Riku didn’t reply, as he was trying to prevent Sora from bursting into tears at the tense environment; whether he understood the harsh words or not—which according to Daisy, he almost definitely did—Sora had often cried when others argued when he was little, particularly when there was yelling, which it seemed this might escalate to. Mickey looked at Riku worriedly.

“As he should be. This certainly is an embarrassment,” Yen Sid said callously. “Sora, stop acting so childishly. A keyblade wielder should not play silly games when he has responsibilities to attend to.”

“Master!” Mickey yelled angrily; Riku had never seen the mouse so enraged outside of battle. “You’re the one who needs to stop!”

Sora now had definite tears beginning to form in his eyes. Riku immediately picked him up and abruptly left the room—they had to get out of there. Hopefully the others would understand. Well, barring the elderly wizard who clearly did not comprehend mental illness nor had ever interacted with a child before.

Sure enough, shortly after leaving, Sora burst into tears while in Riku’s arms, clutching tightly to Riku’s chest with his face in Riku’s neck. Riku ducked through an archway into a small library that he was positive hadn’t been there on their way up, but it had a couch and that was exactly what was needed. Riku sat down on it, and Sora nestled into Riku’s lap, shifting so his face was in Riku’s chest with hands fisting into his shirt.

“Shhh, it’s okay,” Riku whispered gently, rubbing Sora’s back with one hand while keeping him steady with the other. Having a sixteen-year-old curled up in your lap, even one who was smaller-than-average, was a lot different than an actual four-year-old! “You’re safe now, Sora.”

Shortly after Sora had finished crying, and looked like he was about to fall asleep, Kairi entered the room. Riku jostled Sora a bit to wake him and alerted him to Kairi’s presence.

Kairi sat on the couch too. “It’s a bit calmer now,” she told them. “I think Mickey was able to make Yen Sid come to his senses.”

“Really,” Riku said flatly, nudging Sora to sit between them instead of on Riku’s lap, as his legs were starting to fall asleep.

“Okay, not exactly, but he agreed to follow Mickey’s instructions, at least, whether he actually believes it or not.”

Riku sighed. “I guess that’s progress.” He didn’t make any effort to move.

Kairi sighed. “You’re not going back in there, are you?” It was more of a statement than a question.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Riku said. He turned to Sora, who was watching them with clearer eyes than before. “Hey. Are you feeling up to going back in there?”

Sora paused in thought, then shook his head.

“Okay,” Riku said, then turned back to Kairi. “There’s your answer. We’re not taking that test, at least not until this is resolved, and we’re not going back in there to discuss it further.”

Kairi nodded, then smiled gently. “Yeah, I figured as much.” Then she frowned. “Does Yen Sid always act like that? I just met him today, so…”

“I don’t know,” Riku admitted. “I only met him once and it was very brief… Sora had a lot more interaction, as he aided him, Donald, and Goofy on their journey after the year-long sleep.” He turned to the boy in question. “Sora, is he always like that?”

Sora looked down in response and shrugged.

Riku felt a suspicion rising, so asked, “What about towards you?” He had a feeling that, from Sora’s point of view at least, Yen Sid had not been very nice to him at all in the past, not just now. His body language earlier showed it too in retrospect, and now he was unwilling to answer… Riku felt bad. Mickey had recommended Yen Sid as someone that could be a mentor, as he’d been the wizard’s apprentice, so Riku had agreed, but Riku hadn’t done much actual investigation. Sora generally put on a happy face and seemed to accept things said to him, but in actuality he was fairly sensitive and wasn’t the best at taking criticism; he just tended to internalize it rather than show it, at least when not in a child mindset. Strict instructors never worked well for him, and Yen Sid seemed to be on the extreme end of a ‘tough love’ mentorship, from what Riku could tell. That, or Yen Sid just hated mental illness. Riku wanted to find out which; if the former, he’d insist Sora get a different instructor. If the latter… well, maybe he’d still ask for a different mentor, even though Mickey had apparently convinced him to be better with it (Riku didn’t believe that. Not in such a short time. He was sure more comments would be made; they’d probably just be more subtle). But who? Merlin, maybe? Then again, Yen Sid seemed to have fully taken on the task of managing all keyblade things; was there no other choice?

Sora just shrugged again in response.

“Sora, please,” Riku implored, wanting to get to the bottom of this. Maybe he should rephrase it. “Do the things Yen Sid says to you often make you feel bad?”

Sora looked at the floor. Just as Riku was about to try to rephrase again, Sora nodded very slightly. Riku stroked Sora’s hair in a soothing gesture, and Sora flopped into Riku’s side.

“Is it just Yen Sid?” Kairi asked as a follow-up.

Sora shrugged again.

“Come on, Sora, talk to me,” Riku prodded, noting the lack of denial. Had Kairi caught onto something? “Does someone else make you feel bad, too?”

Sora didn’t move for a moment, then shook his head—very timidly, which Riku thought could suggest that there was but he didn’t want to admit it. He’d always been like that, not very willing to admit when he was hurting. Riku would have to keep a lookout in case that suspicion was true; he had a sense trying to press the issue now would be a bad idea. Riku did have a suspicion about who it potentially was, considering what happened when they’d arrived, although he'd need to wait until Sora was better to discuss things further.

Sora stood up, tugging on Riku’s sleeve as he did so to get Riku to stand too. Kairi followed their example as Sora said quietly, “Home?”

Riku nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, let’s go home. Kairi, we’ll meet you on the ship,” Riku told her.

Kairi nodded. “Okay. I’ll tell the others that’s where you are; hopefully we’ll be leaving soon.”

When Sora looked a little confused, Riku reminded him, “Everyone came on the same ship. We can’t leave without them; besides, none of us can drive.”

Sora pouted at that and crossed his arms. “I drive,” he said petulantly.

“Yeah, no, not happening,” Kairi asserted.

Riku thought of a way to distract Sora, as it was possible he’d try to argue about flying the ship, and Riku was not about to let him do that in this state. Finally, he realized something. “Sora, remember how before we left Chip and Dale gave us those new prototype phone things? Why don’t we figure those out while we wait. They said there were games on them, and we can even try calling my parents if you want.”

Sora’s eyes lit up, and Riku inwardly sighed in relief: distraction successful. Sora grabbed Riku’s wrist and practically dragged him out of the room as Kairi followed with an amused expression.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you ask, no, there's not going to be anything more about the cult in this story. An initial draft had it incorporated more, but things got too complex—I want this focused on Sora and his psyche, not some grand complex plot. Maybe someday I'll do another story based around it, but with Sora in a somewhat more stable state.
> 
> As to the person mentioned at the end it's easy to deduce it's referring to Donald, but this isn't going to turn into a Donald-bashing/abuse thing at all. It'll be mentioned again later in a conversation but not at all a big focus unlike some of my other fics nor to the same level. 
> 
> Anyway, enough of that and to the teaser:  
> Next up is a fun fluffy chapter! Sora uses charades to try to get the brooms to dance, which goes as well as you'd expect...
> 
> Should be posted in about a week; I only have it partially written as I only thought of it just a few days ago.


	6. Misunderstandings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is two small scenes totaling just over 3k words combined. The first is pretty silly compared to the rest of this fic; consider it an intermission of sorts, as we've reached the midway point (this fic has grown much longer than I expected!) before we get back to more serious stuff.

About a week later, Riku found himself in the lunch room with Kairi and Sora, the latter who still was in the same childish state. Sora, however, was not sitting on the small couch with Riku and Kairi, rather was standing across the room quietly conversing with some of the brooms via charades. Whatever Sora was trying to say to them seemed to make the trio of brooms and what appeared to be a swiffer extremely confused. Riku kept an eye on Sora; he didn’t think the brunette would actually leave the room, but much like a child Sora had inadvertently been getting into trouble due to his curiosity of everything. A few days prior he’d even gotten injured when he tried to climb a bookshelf to reach something and ended up knocking the whole thing over (thank the gods cure magic existed, otherwise he’d have had a concussion!).

Suddenly the brooms hopped up and down excitedly and then hurriedly trotted out the door in a line; it appeared they’d finally figured things out. The swiffer followed them, although it still appeared confused.

“Should we be worried?” Riku wondered aloud.

Kairi shrugged. “He probably just wants different food or something; you know how picky he is.”

“Speaking of that,” Riku said as Sora returned to them, “Sora, you do need to eat something.”

Sora, now standing in front of the two, scrunched his nose and shook his head. 

“Is that why you were talking to the brooms? You want different food?” Kairi asked.

Sora blinked, processing that, then shook his head. “Want fun,” he said in a childish tone.

“Fun?” Riku asked with trepidation, an uneasy feeling coming over him. They all had heard the stories of Mickey being too vague when giving instructions to the brooms when he had been training under Yen Sid—one incident had even caused the Tower to flood! If Sora hadn’t been specific enough, or if the brooms misunderstood the charades, who knew what could happen.

“Yes! They move.”

“The brooms move?” Kairi asked. “What do you mean?”

“Fun moving,” Sora explained as he began wiggling back and forth.

“I still don’t know what you mean,” Riku admitted.

Kairi, however, did catch on. “Oh! Do you mean dance?”

Sora jumped and clapped his hands. “Yes! Dance!”

Riku’s bad feeling increased. “You want the brooms to dance?” he clarified.

Sora shook his head to signal ‘no,’ then said “All!”

“All the brooms?”

“All sticks!”

“All sticks?” Riku was again confused.

“Oh. You mean the mops and swiffer too?” Kairi translated.

Sora beamed at that and nodded his head.

Riku subtly glanced at Kairi, who glanced back, appearing to have the same feeling of apprehension about this.

It didn’t take long for that trepidation to become founded.

As the trio finished their lunches (Sora’s which had to practically be spoon-fed to him to get him to agree to eat it; not that Riku minded), the brooms, mops, and swiffer filed back into the room carrying what looked like…

“Are those frogs?” Kairi asked, highly confused.

“Very large frogs,” Riku confirmed. It seemed the cleaning items had indeed mistaken Sora’s instructions, somehow thinking that he desired them to bring cat-sized frogs into the room.

Kairi squinted at them. “Are they heartless frogs?”

Riku evaluated that question, seeing if he could sense any darkness from them. “No, I don’t think so,” he concluded. “They’re just… giant frogs.”

“Where would they have gotten them?” Kairi wondered.

Riku shrugged, unsure what to do about the situation, which was progressively getting worse as the cleaning items had released the frogs and appeared to be attempting to play leap-frog with them, to their complete and utter failure as the frogs did not understand what the cleaning supplies wanted of them and were not at all happy about being in such a situation.

Riku rushed to close the door while they tried to figure it out, preventing the uncontrollable, clearly angry frogs from escaping into the castle. To his relief he was able to do so seconds before a frog reached it. 

Kairi screamed, and Riku turned to find her in the corner, cornered by three frogs—right, she was not very fond of amphibians, despite growing up on an island where there were plenty. Sora, now perched on top of a bookshelf to avoid the frogs, was in tears—right, despite his generally outgoing attitude, Sora had never been a fan of high-commotion settings, and a hoard of loudly creaking frogs leaping around plus brooms, mops, and a swiffer frantically running around unsure what to do definitely counted as high-commotion.

They needed to get out of there, Riku decided. He drew his keyblade and rushed towards Kairi, whacking some of the frogs out of the way (making sure to hit them with the flat of the blade so he wouldn’t significantly injure them; it wasn’t the frogs’ fault the brooms kidnapped them) to clear a path for her.

“Thanks,” Kairi sighed in relief as Riku reached her. “I thought I was over that phobia, but… well, guess it’s different when they’re dog-sized.”

“Yeah, that’s for sure,” Riku said with a chuckle. “You get out of here; I’ll collect Sora and meet—”

“No, just leave with me and he’ll follow,” Kairi pointed out, summoning her keyblade too to help get through the frogs, grabbing Riku by the wrist and leading him towards the door.

Riku frowned. “Won’t that only cause him more trauma? He’ll have to get through all the frogs.”

“It’s fine; he’s a keyblade wielder,” Kairi reminded Riku. “He can still use it if needed. Just watch, it’ll be fine.”

“Right,” Riku said as he carefully opened the door, making sure no frogs were near enough to escape.

“RIKU!” Sora shouted, propelling himself with a huge burst of air magic that scattered everything, including the furniture, around the room, and tackling Riku straight through the doorway and into the wall opposite.

“Oww,” Riku groaned from underneath Sora as Kairi quickly shut the door and hurried over to them.

“See, it worked!” Kairi said happily as she used a cure spell on the two.

“Since when do you know how to use cure magic?” Riku wondered as the girl helped him and Sora up.

“Minnie’s been teaching me some stuff,” Kairi informed him. “I can do some light magic, too. That’s all she knows though; I’ve been thinking about asking Donald to teach me some elemental ones, but he always seems really busy…”

“Well, can’t hurt to ask anyway,” Riku suggested. “But, maybe first we should figure out what to do about these frogs.”

“Oh, right. Yes. Um… any ideas?”

Riku sighed. “We probably should go find Mickey; he’ll know what to do.” Hopefully they wouldn’t get in too much trouble.

The trio began walking down the corridor; as they turned a corner, Mickey conveniently was walking down the adjoining hallway towards them.

“Oh, hey, everyone!” the mouse greeted. “How’s everything going?”

“Oh, well, there’s kinda an issue—” Riku nervously began.

He was interrupted by a shrill scream from the direction they’d come from… well, fuck. Someone must have entered the lunch room.

“Minne!” Mickey shouted with urgency, rushing past the three; that must have been who screamed.

The trio followed, finding the door to the room open with Daisy and Minnie against the opposite wall hugging each other, watching in horror as the hoard of frogs frantically hopped out of the room and through the halls.

“Ah, shit,” Riku said. “One of us should have stayed by the door to prevent anyone entering…”

“What in the worlds is going on here?” Mickey shouted over the croaking of the frogs, trying to get to Minnie, which became easy once the frogs finished leaving the room and vanished throughout the castle. He quickly hugged her.

“Oh, Mickey!” Minnie said. “That was so scary! Whyever were there frogs in there?”

“Oh my,” Daisy commented as she stood at the threshold of the door. Riku peeked around the corner too; all the cleaning supplies were scattered around the floor, some in complete disrepair; had the frogs done that, or Sora’s magic? No, it must have been the frogs, at least in part, considering some had clear bite marks. Wait, bite marks?

A stray frog hopped slowly towards them, calmer than the others had been. As it made a loud croak, rows of pointed teeth glimmered in the light.

“Fanged frogs? Seriously?” Kairi said, looking like she might faint. “How’d we not notice that before?”

“Wait, you know what happened?” Mickey demanded.

Riku sighed, then explained, “Sora tried to ask the brooms if they could dance, via charades. Somehow they took that to mean ‘bring frogs in here’.”

“I see,” Mickey said simply, stepping into the room to assess the damage. “Well, the brooms are notoriously difficult to control, so I’d refrain from telling them to do anything other than basic tasks from now on,” he instructed. “And Sora,” he continued, turning to the brunette and saying firmly, “If you need them to do something, but aren’t sure what to say, ask one of us, okay? Charades are not the brooms’ strong suit. Also, do not ask them to provide entertainment—they are notoriously bad at that, too. Understand?”

Sora nodded sheepishly.

“Great!” Mickey said, more jovially. “Now that that’s understood, let’s get those frogs rounded up!”

“How?” Riku wondered.

“Well, I can tell the brooms—oh, wait,” Mickey realized. “Hmm. The brooms will take a while to fix… I’ll call Goofy, then, and see if he can rally the knights to collect them, hopefully before they get into town. How many were there?”

“I’m not sure,” Riku admitted. “A lot.”

“I think each broom had one,” Kairi supplied.

Mickey let out a low whistle. “Okay. Yup, we’re gonna need the knights for this.”

Luckily, the knights had previous experience with swarms of fanged frogs (although when Riku asked why the answers had all been extremely vague), so it took barely an hour for all the frogs to be captured after Goofy had rallied the knights and given the orders. That was, of course, assuming that every cleaning item only had produced a single frog each. Afterwards, Sora had sheepishly apologized to the dog for the inconvenience, but Goofy only shrugged it off and said the knights were due for training exercises anyway, which this incident could qualify as.

By the time it was all over, everyone was tired out and hungry, so they opted to have an early dinner; Donald and José joined them, too, even though they’d been conspicuously absent during the frog ordeal. While the frogs were being captured, Mickey and Minnie had worked on fixing a few of the cleaning supplies, who seemed compliant enough to cook dinner—with Minnie’s supervision, in case they took Donald’s joke about frog legs as an actual order.

***

The following morning, after Riku and Sora woke up, got dressed and ready for the day, and were about to leave, something unexpected happened that Riku was not at all prepared for.

Before Riku could open the door, Sora tugged on Riku’s hand; as he turned, the brunette wrapped his arms around Riku’s waist in a hug, which Riku returned. It was a common thing to happen before they left… only this time, Sora’s intention was not as innocent as usual.

Sora withdrew from the hug slightly, stood on his tip-toes, leaned up, and pressed his lips to Riku’s. Riku leaned into it… then abruptly pulled back.

“Sora, we can’t!” Riku said in a slight panic, realizing something. Upon noting Sora’s brokenhearted look at those words as he began to back up, Riku quickly grabbed Sora’s hands and clarified, “I really want to, I do, promise! I’ve… been wanting that for a long time…”

Sora tilted his head, looking immensely confused as he scrunched his brow adorably, silently asking ‘why’.

Riku sighed. “Right now, you’re trapped in the mind of a kid… Kissing you would be taking advantage.”

Sora shook his head vigorously. “Not kid!” he claimed, yet Riku could easily tell by the tone of voice and speech pattern that that wasn’t true. Or was it? Daisy had said Sora could comprehend some things perfectly fine, but did that extend to his emotions and sexual things? Riku would have to ask her. It'd be awkward though… 

“Physically, no. But mentally, yes,” Riku clarified. Let’s wait until later to do more adult things like kissing, okay?”

Sora frowned. “But I want to. You want to.” Riku was glad Sora actually talked around him, more often in the previous few days than before, although it was only when they were alone. Having this conversation in charades would be much more difficult.

“Yes I do want to, just not now.”

“When?”

“When you’re feeling better. When you’re mentally sixteen again.”

Sora blinked, looking confused. “When?” he asked again.

“Later,” Riku tried explaining in simpler terms. “Not now.”

Sora tilted his head in thought. “After dinner?”

Riku sighed. “No, Sora. Well, maybe. If you’re feeling better.”

“No, now.” Sora pressed into Riku, looking at him with doe-like eyes. 

Riku’s heart sped up. He’d dreamed of this happening, of Sora willingly kissing him… but this wasn’t right. Riku shook his head. “I’m sorry, not now.” Riku backed up slightly before his body could start reacting in other ways, like Sora’s seemed to be from what Riku had just felt. He held Sora’s hand and began to lead him out of the room. “Come on, let’s go get food.”

Sora reluctantly followed Riku out of the room, and they silently walked to breakfast, Riku’s thoughts racing. Sora kept looking at Riku, clear desire upon his face… leave it to Sora to realize his feelings while trapped in the mind of a four-year-old. A currently horny four-year-old who apparently did not yet understand the meaning of consent. Riku had to consult with someone about this, but who? Mickey? Normally Riku would confide with him on things, but Mickey didn’t have experience with kids. Donald or Goofy would be a good choice as they knew how to manage both Sora and children, but Riku didn’t really want to reveal to them that Sora had kissed him since they were more-or-less the brunette’s father-figures—it’d just be too awkward.

As they entered the breakfast room, Riku noted Minnie, Daisy, and Kairi were all there… oh, that was perfect!

Riku guided Sora to the former two and told them, “Here, you watch him for a bit, I have no idea how to deal with a horny four-year-old,” and before they could react he grabbed Kairi’s hand and pulled her out of the room. Thankfully, Sora didn’t follow; he was probably too confused. Riku felt bad about leaving him alone like that.

“Um, what’s going on?” Kairi asked once they were outside and in a nearby sitting room. “Did I hear you right?”

Riku began pacing back and forth, thoughts racing.

“Riku?” Kairi prodded.

“Sora kissed me,” Riku said, continuing pacing.

Kairi looked confused. “Okay? Hasn’t that been a long time coming, though? I thought you were head over heels for him?”

Riku froze. “Was it that obvious?” he asked, turning to her with wide eyes.

Kairi shrugged. “To me it was. Maybe Mickey too. Dunno about anyone else though… anyway, what’s the problem with him kissing you?”

“Kairi, he’s currently four-years-old!” Riku said. Shouldn’t it be obvious? “I can’t be kissing someone who’s four!”

“Well, he’s not physically four,” Kairi said. “He’s physically sixteen. He’s going to have urges, and you are the subject of his feelings…”

“Yeah, I know, but still. It feels wrong. Like… like I’m taking advantage of him…”

“You’re not,” Kairi said firmly. “He’s the one who kissed you first, right? Clearly he wants this too. Daisy said he can generally understand things that are happening.”

“Yeah I know, but if he’s mentally four otherwise, does that even count as consent even if he initiates things? I can’t do it. But the main issue isn’t that, it’s that he’s not understanding! I tried to explain this to him. He didn’t get it. As you said, he’s sixteen physically, partially cognitively too. He has urges, and I’m clearly the subject of them. But the four-year-old mind insists he acts on them without any forethought. What if he tries to do more than just kiss me? What do I do in that case? What if he won’t take no for an answer? You know how stubborn he can be! I know if he were in his normal mindset he’d understand and accept it if I say no, but what if he doesn’t in this mindset?”

“Then you push him away,” Kairi said. “He has to learn that that’s not okay, whatever the age.”

“But I don’t want to hurt him. I love him.”

“Don’t give in because of that. Loving him doesn’t mean you have to cater to his demands. If you don’t want it, tell him. Push him away. Once Sora’s back into his regular mindset, he’ll understand.”

“Yeah but he won’t understand right now. He'll get upset.”

“Then teach him,” Kairi said simply. “Don’t give in if he keeps pushing. Tell him that that’s not okay. Let him be upset. He’ll learn.”

“I guess…” Truthfully Riku wanted to run away and hide. He didn’t want to deal with this. He didn’t want to have to push Sora away. He wanted to pull Sora towards him and… ugh! Why couldn’t this be simple?!

“Riku!” came a frantic shout from the hallway—Sora was looking for him. Honestly Riku was surprised it took that long; was his anxiety improving, or had he just been too confused to react before then? Or had the others kept him away?

“In here,” Riku called back; the door was open.

Sora immediately rushed in and clung to Riku, making a slight whine as he did so. Minnie and Daisy followed.

“Shh, it’s okay, I’m here,” Riku told the boy as he stroked his hair.

“Don’t go,” Sora muttered.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Riku promised. That was the truth, even if he was wary and nervous about this entire situation. “Hey, want to go into town and play fruitball?” he suggested, hoping a distraction would work.

It did. Sora let go of Riku and his eyes lit up. “Yeah!” he cheered, turning and running to the door, where he waited for Riku. It appeared he had forgotten the entire incident from earlier, thanks to the low attention span and poor short-term memory toddlers had. Riku inwardly sighed in relief; hopefully Sora would permanently forget about the whole incident, and they could have a proper first kiss once he was back to sixteen.

“Kairi, you coming too?” Riku asked.

“Sure! Sounds fun,” the girl replied.

“Cool. How about, I’ll meet you and Sora there; I want to talk to Daisy about what just happened, without Sora.”

Kairi glanced at Sora, who seemed impatient. “Something tells me he won’t let you do that. I’ll talk to her, okay? I’ll message you about it later, using the GummiPhone.”

Riku considered that for a moment. It was true that Sora was not about to go anywhere without Riku at the moment. “Okay,” Riku decided. “See you in a little bit, then.”

“Ice-cream?” Sora asked, suddenly at Riku’s side again.

Riku chuckled; he should have predicted that. “Sure, we’ll get ice-cream, too,” he agreed, then paused. “Wait. We need to eat breakfast first,” he realized. 

“Ice-cream?” Sora repeated, looking hopeful as he entwined their hands together.

“No, we can’t have ice-cream for breakfast,” Riku said with a fond sigh. “But I promise we’ll get it later, okay?”

“Okay!” Sora chimed, then pulled Riku out the door, thoughts undoubtedly entirely on ice-cream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that didn't get too weird at any point.
> 
> Next up: I'm not actually sure. I have most the rest written except the next couple scenes; I need something to go between this and Sora "waking up". I want there to be another week or two until that point but I'm not sure how to get there.
> 
> So, I'm taking suggestions (preferably, I'd want a more serious scene followed by a fluffier scene): What do you want to see them do? Are there subjects I should touch upon? Should Riku further address the kiss, or ignore it (I'm not going to have Sora try that again)? Should the GummiPhone conversation be shown? Should they take a short trip somewhere? Should there be more drama with the Disney ensemble? Something cute or something angsty? Let me know what you like!

**Author's Note:**

> (This fic is on temporary hiatus; it'll resume, I promise, and I am working diligently on it, but between this, my other WIPs, and general work I was getting overwhelmed so I need to take a step back and move slower on some things; the only fic/series with regular updates right now will be "An Unlikely Alliance". The others will be sporadic with long gaps. Follow me on Twitter (CaitSidhe4) for updates and more!)


End file.
